


Little Demons

by EvenescentTranquility



Series: One Piece AUs (The First Set) [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Demons, Chibi, F/M, Humor, M/M, Magic, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:35:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9854132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvenescentTranquility/pseuds/EvenescentTranquility
Summary: A One Piece Demon AUYou accidentally summon a demon into your living room, and now you've got to figure out how to get him and all his friends who followed him home, hoping they don't destroy your apartment or your sanity before then.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Undecided Pairing. Could be any of the above!
> 
> One Piece belongs to Oda, this story belongs to me :)

Slowly you trudged your way home from class, hefting your bag higher on your shoulder and wishing the textbooks were a bit lighter. It was your full day of classes, meaning you actually had class for ten solid hours on this particular day, with psychology and calculus in the morning, only a quick break for lunch, biology and Latin in the afternoon followed by the biology lab course into the evening.

It was a pretty hectic day, but it meant your Tuesdays and Thursdays were completely free of classes and gave you plenty of free time. The downside of course being that you had to haul the textbooks for all the classes, plus your laptop and notebooks all day long.

Being a junior you were able to live off campus, which was nice, and with the money your often absent but generous parents had given you, you could afford a nice apartment for yourself. It meant not having to deal with roommates, which more than made up for the fact that it was a bit of a walk to get there.

Or at least it did most days. You groaned as rain began to sprinkle down from the sky. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue, as you’d have an umbrella, but today you’d forgotten to repack it, having left it out to dry after going home yesterday. 

You glanced around frantically for cover, clutching the notebooks, which hadn’t been able to fit in your small book bag or laptop bag to your chest, desperate to protect your precious notes from the rain. Classes were tough, and the atmosphere was extremely competitive here. This combined with the fact that you were a bit of an introvert by nature made it extremely difficult to make friends. Thus if you lost these notes to the rain, no one would be letting you borrow theirs, which could lead to you flunking a class.

You found your salvation in the form of a small curio store a couple blocks a way from your apartment, and quickly ducked in just as it began to pour. You were hoping they would sell you an umbrella, or at least let you stay until the rain let up a bit.

Despite it being relatively close to your apartment you’d actually never been in here before, not having the time or the inclination with your grueling schedule to spend your free time in a place like this. Glancing around curiously you saw all sorts of strange things.

Weaponry hung from the walls, from large old looking battle-axes to rusted swords, and pristine sharp looking knives of all shapes and sizes. Whoever owned the shop must either own or collect them. Some of them had what looked suspiciously like bloodstains on them still, which made you more than a bit wary.

Shelves lined the walls and formed different stands in the shop. Each available surface was completely covered in strange looking knick-knacks all with white price tags on them and some with small placards with descriptions. The place wasn’t very well lit, and smelled a bit like mothballs, mildew, and old paper, and the air hung heavy and quiet outside the small tinkle of the bell that had announced your entry.

Slowly moving farther in, unable to help your curiosity you couldn’t stop the snort of disbelief that left you as you read some of the descriptions of the items. Seriously who would believe those strange crumpled things were demon horns, or those pathetic dried looking pieces fairy wings? And dragon teeth? Really?

You were a woman of science, and frankly you felt bad for whatever poor idiot actually believed whatever crock the owner of this place was selling. Frankly you were more than a bit contemptuous, and even a bit amused by the junk that lay around.

“Fufufufu see anything you like?” a strange voice asked, nearly making you jump out of your skin in shock.

The man who’d spoken was one of the strangest you’d ever seen in the entirety of your life. To start with he was huge easily over six and a half feet tall, and very well muscled, which you could see thanks to the open white collared shirt he was wearing. He was also wearing dark red and pink giraffe print pants and the biggest coat you’d ever seen made completely of pink feathers. Quite frankly it was one of the most ridiculous get-ups you’d ever seen and you probably would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so intimidating.

Despite the fact that you were indoors he was wearing opaque sunglasses completely hiding his eyes, but emphasized his bright blonde hair, and the wide unnerving smile on his lips. You weren’t sure what it was, but something about him was unsettling. He made the small hairs on the back of your neck prickle with some innate sense of danger, leading you to be cautious.

“No sir, I just stopped in to get out of the rain,” you told him warily, clutching your notebooks tighter to your chest.

“I see, well that’s too bad, you sure I can’t interest you in anything? A cutie like you could find all sorts of uses for some of my potions I’m sure,” he told you, latching firmly onto your elbow and dragging you over to a section of the store before you could even think to object.

“Something to boost the mind? A calming draught for stress? Or maybe even a love potion perhaps?” he asked indicating each bottle on a nearby shelf, never loosing that unnerving grin.

“No thank you sir,” you told him firmly pulling your arm out of his grasp, feeling that it would be better for your continued health if you didn’t tell him you believed his potions were nothing more than snake oil, and probably about as effective, “But I could maybe use an umbrella if you’ve got one.”

“Fufufufu! So feisty!” the man mused happily tilting his head to the side with the same wide grin that was really starting to give you the heebie-jeebies

“Alright cutie, I can get you an umbrella, and I’ll even throw in this book for free, just because I like you,” he informed you thrusting a worn looking tome, apparently grabbed at random from one of the shelves into your arms, along with the most fluorescent ugly pink umbrella you’d ever seen.

“That will be thirty dollars for the umbrella,” he told you holding out a hand.

You grimaced at the price, but glancing outside the rain showed absolutely no signs of letting up. Quite frankly you were getting more than a little desperate to get out of this strange shop and away from this creepy man. However you couldn’t risk your notes, and so it seemed you had no choice.

“Alright,” you dug into your wallet, which was luckily in your pocket, precariously balancing notebooks, heavy tome and umbrella in your hands, pulling out the necessary cash and handing it over.

“Alright cutie, here’s your receipt,” the man said cheerfully, using an old fashioned, antique looking register that you’d actually thought was part of the merchandise, “Come back any time!”

You murmured a polite agreement and hurried out the front of the store, relieved to be out of the presence of the strange man. Silently promising yourself to never, ever forget your umbrella or go into that creepy store ever again. Luckily as ugly as it was the umbrella was big, and managed to keep you nice and dry on the way home, along with your notes.

Heaving a sigh of relief you placed the umbrella by the door to dry, put the tome and notes down on your coffee table, and went to make yourself a nice cup of soothing hot chocolate. It was Friday with no classes on the weekend you were planning to sit down, watch a few things on the television, relax and try to forget that weird encounter ever happened.

…~oO*Oo~…

It was Saturday evening before you thought back on the incident again. Your homework was done, and there was nothing good on television, so you decided to curl up with a good book and a nice cup of tea. Normally you might’ve even gone outside to sunbathe a bit, but the weather was still gloomy, the pitter-patter of rain a constant in the background.

Unfortunately as you browsed your bookshelf you realized none of your regular books seemed to hold any appeal for you, and you’d already read your new magazines. Feeling frustrated you turned and flopped back down on the couch ready to scroll through the channels and watch another episode of Family Feud for the zillionth time only for your eyes to be caught by the heavy tome laying on the table.

Something about it made you hesitate, maybe it was leftover nervous feelings from the creepy shop owner who’d given it to you, or maybe it was the book itself, but eventually the chance to overcome your sheer boredom was too much to pass up. 

Reaching for it you were surprised by the feel of the cover, which was buttery soft leather, smooth and worn under your fingers. The pages were yellowed slightly with age, and you almost would’ve been afraid to open it for damaging it, if your curiosity hadn’t gotten the best of you.

The title on the inside cover had you smirking in amusement, knowing this book would be good for laughs if for nothing else. After all with a title like _Spells for the Demon Summoner_ it would probably be full of nothing but crock. 

Flipping open to the first page you noticed some of the pages looked to be missing, like someone had torn them out. You frowned at the thought, as a hardcore bibliophile the idea of ripping pages out of books like this was abhorrent to you, even if the book was nothing but made up spells for the gullible.

Still you pressed on, carefully moving the remnants of torn pages out of your way to get to the first intact page. You nearly laughed aloud as you realized what the spell did. It was essentially a quick but permanent spell that would turn a demon into a smaller doll sized form.

You did giggle a bit when you read the warning at the bottom of the page that proclaimed “Note* Demons will still retain their powers even in their much smaller forms and can be just as destructive, also be warned many Demons won’t take kindly to being shrunk.”

The spell itself was actually fairly simple even it was in Latin. With a little help from the handy-dandy guide in the back of your Latin textbook, you had the small couplet translated quickly.

_Accipe Deamone, ut parvo  
Sicut hoc quod dico… ()_

Or…

Take the demon, make it small  
As I say the word…

It was completely simple, but at least the words actually had something to do with the spell it claimed to make happen, as opposed to the random mumbo jumbo you’d half been expecting.

Chuckling to yourself you flipped through the book, sometimes pausing to sound out and translate unfamiliar words to practice for Latin class, as your professor liked to call on random students and make them read aloud from different Latin texts. Yes it was nerdy, but hey you needed to study and this way was a lot more fun than the dry and boring stuff you had to translate in your textbook.

Plus the book had all sorts of interesting pictures, captions and notes about these so-called demons. Someone had apparently put a lot of work into making this. At the very least you had to admire their creativity and effort. After all who came up with things like Demons made of candy syrup or wax, or who had strange abilities like splitting their bodies into pieces.

Deciding to translate the whole thing you smile to yourself, glad you decided to open the book after all, this stuff is pretty hilarious after all. This one read…

Find the willing demon  
Eager for adventure  
Bring him to my side  
So we may fight together

Nodding to yourself you decided to practice that paragraph aloud for kicks, completely disregarding the rest of the page, which was full of warnings and standard things about controlling the demon, not letting it rampage, yada, yada, yada…

Slowly repeating the words in your head, making sure you had the correct pronunciation you tried it out loud, “ _Find voluntas daemonis Cupiditate Adventure Afferte huc illum ad latus meum: Et ineat mecum singulare certamen._ ”

The minute you finished speaking the last word, thunder boomed overhead, rocking your apartment, and making you drop the book in shock, jumping and squeaking in surprise as the lights flickered and then went out.

You cursed as you realized the power must have gone out and quickly searched around in the dark. You found your phone beside you on the couch and lit the screen as you tried to calm your racing heart and remember where you’d put your emergency flashlight. But those thoughts were quickly stifled as a soft thump and a low groan echoed through your apartment.

Your adrenaline surged and you quickly doused the light of your phone, not wanting whoever was in your apartment to find you by its light and did your best to move out from behind the coffee table and towards the front door. Your plan was to hopefully make it outside and dash for the nearest neighbor, and have them call the police.

Another thump, closer this time had you clutching your phone tightly to your chest as you tried not to breathe too loudly, hoping whoever was in here with you was as blind as you were, praying they couldn’t hear your racing heart. You winced and bit back a curse as you accidentally knocked your shin on the corner of your coffee table, knowing it was going to bruise badly later, and decided it would be best to drop to your hands and knees and crawl out. There was less of a chance you’d fall on your face that way.

Determinedly you crawled in the direction of the front door, only for your hand to land on something strange. It had a strange rubbery texture, and for an instant you were relieved thinking it might be the handle to the umbrella you’d left by the door. Unfortunately those happy thoughts were ended as whatever was in your hand moved a strange sound emanating from it that sounded a bit like laughter, as it jerked out of your hold. You shrieked in surprise, flailing backwards and away from it.

Knowing the element of surprise was lost you quickly lit the screen of your phone and used it as a flashlight as you dashed for your room, hoping to use the fire escape to get out of your apartment, since the person who’d broken in was between you and the door.

You completely ignored the call of “Hey wait!” as you dashed for safety, heart pounding in terror. Luckily it didn’t seem like he was moving after you, and you thought maybe you were home free as you reached your bedroom door, which had a lock on it only for a hand to latch on to your arm.

You cursed yourself for not thinking there might be more than one intruder, and glanced at the hand holding on to you, lighting it with your phone, trying to see your attacker. For a moment you just stared at the appendage, and the subsequent attached arm, and tried to reason with yourself, because truly you could not be seeing what you were seeing. Surely your eyes were deceiving you?

Blinking furiously you looked again, and saw the same thing, the hand that was latched on to you was attached to an arm, which led all the way back to where you’d been before, close to the front door, a good twenty feet. The shock meant you didn’t scream as you were jerked back across the room, the expanded arm rapidly shrinking until you were catapulted into the chest of the strange intruder and held firmly.

Naturally your first inclination was to scream, hoping the neighbors would hear you and call the police, hopefully some time before this weird thing killed you. That hope died as another loud rumble of thunder, which was a near constant in the background, shook the building. There was no way anyone was going to hear you over that noise.

However, he seemed to have heard you, and dropped you, either in shock, or because the high decibels of your screeching had burst his eardrums. You immediately scrambled away, or tried to only for a strange stretching arm to grab you back again. You fought furiously. Living alone you’d made it a point to learn self-defense and you attended kickboxing classes regularly but your punches and kicks felt as if they bounced right off of him.

A bright flash of lightning illuminated the intruder’s face for a brief moment, giving you a glimpse of a scar and bright white teeth, the smile lit as it was immediately reminded you of the creepy man in the curio shop. You prayed fervently that it wasn’t him that had you in his grasp.

The thought of that man, led you to thoughts of the book, and your panicked mind instantly latched on to the thought. Maybe it was the atmosphere, maybe it was instinct, desperation, or the way you’d seen and felt the strange composition of the intruder’s body, but you decided in that wild desperate moment, to try to use a spell, even if it would only make your soon to be killer laugh at you, it was all you had left. 

Abandoning all logic, you spouted out the first spell you could think of, that you could remember, the first one you’d read, “ _Accipe Deamone, ut parvo. Sicut hoc quod dico…_ ”

Nothing happened, and for a brief and agonizing moment you wondered if this was it, the end of your life, until a flash of adrenalin fueled inspiration hit. The way the spell was worded in English actually called for a fill in the blank, ‘Take the demon, make it small when I say the word. .’ Unfortunately adrenalin also meant your desperate search for a word to fit the criteria of the situation meant you blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“CHIBI!” you shouted into the stranger’s face, completing the spell.

For a moment it was like time stood still, and then, miracle of miracle the hands holding your arms disappeared, and the lights flickered back on. Shocked you took a moment, and then spun in a circle, glancing around for any evidence of your intruder, only to find no one there.

A shocked giggle escaped you, and for a moment you wondered if you were going mad. Had you imagined the entire thing? Fallen asleep on the couch and had a strange dream? Were you in fact still dreaming? Pinching yourself to be sure you realized you couldn’t be dreaming, it hurt too much, plus your shin was throbbing from where you’d smacked it against the coffee table.

You absently wondered if all the stress of school was finally catching up to you, and making you have a psychotic break. After all what kind of idiot believes in demons and magic spells? Not you that was for sure! Reaching down you went to roll up your pant leg to inspect the damage from your fight with the coffee table (in which the table had obviously won), only to be met by wide brown eyes staring up at you.

An earsplitting shriek escaped your lips and you lurched back and away from the brown eyed creature, promptly loosing your balance and falling back onto your rear, then scrambling away from it until your back hit the side of the couch.

“Owie!” the creature whined unhappily, staring up at you unhappily a pout on its face, “What was that for? Your screaming is hurting my ears!”

Your eyes felt like they would pop out of your head as you stared at the creature. It was humanoid and stood about as tall as your knee, but its head was not at all in proportion with its body. Honestly it reminded you of Chibis from the manga you’d read in high school. 

Based on the humanoid features you would guess it was male with shaggy black hair, tan skin, and enormous big brown eyes that were still staring at you sadly. He was wearing a bright red vest, and jean shorts, with simple straw sandals on his feet and a bright yellow straw hat with a red ribbon on his head.

What really caught your attention though was the small scar below his right eye. It was a scar you recognized. Admittedly you’d only seen it for a second when the lightning had flashed but it was pretty distinct. Your thoughts were a mess, your brain completely scrambled as it tried to tell you that this was the intruder who’d grabbed you, now shrunk down to toddler size, while simultaneously trying to tell you that such a thing was completely and utterly impossible.

With most thought processes offline, it was no surprise you resorted to caveman like behavior as you slowly reached out a trembling hand and poked the small creature’s cheek. It had the same rubbery texture as what you’d been punching and kicking before. 

Getting no adverse reaction from the creature, you pinched it carefully, feeling the strange texture that reminded you of rubber. Impulsively you yanked on the cheek only for it to stretch far beyond what a normal human’s cheek should. The shock of which made you let go, and it promptly snapped back into place like a rubber band.

“Hey!” the creature protested annoyed, “Don’t do that!”

“What the hell are you?” you whispered in shock and awe.

“I’m Luffy!” he introduced cheerfully, with the brightest smile you’d ever seen, “I’m a Gomu-Gomu Demon.”

The smile was extremely familiar, and reminded you of something even more important than the fact that this strange creature was claiming to be some sort of rubber demon, “What are you doing in my house?!”

“You summoned me here,” he answered with an unhappy pout at your shouting.

You fought the strange and unwelcome urge to coo at him. He was actually pretty adorable, all big eyes and protruding lip, and instead protested, “I did not!”

“Did so!” he argued back immediately, “You said the spell and everything!”

“Spell?” you asked weakly, as your mind flashed back to the book, and the words you’d spoken before seeing the intruder and then tried to once more reject what was staring you straight in the face.

“That spell?! It wasn’t supposed to work! It’s a load of crap! A hoax! A scam! Demons don’t exist!” you insisted fervently.

“Do too! I’m right here and I’m a demon!” he insisted just as firmly back.

“No you’re not! You’re a figment of my imagination,” you informed him, trying to convince both him and yourself, “I’ve obviously been working too hard, and need to see a good psychiatrist and maybe a doctor to get myself checked for problems with my brain. That or I’ve hit my head and this is all a strange dream…”

“Ouch!” you yelped in surprise as his small arm suddenly stretched forward and his fingers latched on to your cheek pinching you hard.

“Not dreaming!” Luffy insisted cheerfully, “Anyway I’m ready for my adventure!”

“Adventure?” you asked numbly, rubbing your cheek, that still stung slightly, “What do you mean adventure?”

“I came when you called,” Luffy explained slowly as if speaking to an incredibly dense small child, “That means we get to go on adventure!”

“I don’t remember anything like that,” you told him with a frown.

He pouted at you, hands on hips, “I want an adventure! Nami says when a demon is summoned they go on an adventure, it says so in the spell book!”

“Book?” you repeated feeling a bit like a parrot, “The Book!”

Glancing around you found it where it had fallen between the couch and the coffee table, frantically you flipped through the pages to find the spell you were reading before everything happened.

Once on the page you took a moment to glance over the words of the spell once more before actually reading the information below it.

_When one attempts to summon a demon be sure to have safety measures ready. A salt ring to contain a potentially violent and angry demon is a must to ensure the creature doesn’t begin to rampage. Many a beginning summoner have lost their lives to a demon who didn’t care for a summons._

_Ensure as you’re casting the spell to keep in mind what type of demon you would like to summon. If no specific thoughts and conditions are created as you cast the spell, a demon could be pulled at random. You could receive something as innocuous and harmless as a bunny demon to as terrifying as a lava demon, and are likely not going to receive the demon who suits whatever necessitated calling for a demon in the first place._

_The other thing to be sure of, is what you are willing to offer the demon. Demons aren’t angels, they don’t work for free, so don’t expect them to. Standard contracts include things like blood, money, goods or favors._

_Note that if you do not specify what you are offering it is within the demon’s right to ask whatever it wishes of you. Bear in mind the consequences can be extremely dire, they can ask for anything from your every possession to your life to your soul. You can of course dismiss the demon, but doing so without fulfilling the contract can have extreme negative consequences._

_These consequences can include everything from curses to refusing to work with you ever again. Demons are vengeful creatures; do not anger them if it can be avoided._

_Finally, when summoning your demon beware their silver tongues. Most demons are incredibly persuasive, and able to talk you into things you thought you’d never do. Keep in mind your limits and never trust a demon unless they’ve given you their word. Good luck summoner._

You stared in shock at the text, then back at the demon calling itself Luffy, who was watching you curiously, and then back at the text again. In the end it was too much for your poor brain to take. The world went black, as you slumped over in a dead faint. Your last thought? I really hope this is all a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Also special thanks to my beta (who's also my sister) thanks for much for reading everything first and letting me bounce ideas off you. You rock!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Piece belongs to Oda but this story belongs to me :)

Gentle poking at your cheek roused you from your sleep as you tiredly tried to bat the hand away, “Leave me ‘lone.”

The hand was insistent though, ignoring your pleas of “Five more minutes.”

“Wake up!” an unfamiliar voice whined unhappily, “I want my adventure already.”

The idea of an unfamiliar person in your apartment finally roused you, and you sat bolt upright, forehead colliding with something squishy, which collapsed into your lap. Glancing down you were immediately face to face with the strange creature you had hoped was part of your dreams. Pinching yourself again you realized it wasn’t going away, no matter how hard you tried.

“Oh good you’re awake! It’s morning time! Can we go on my adventure now?” the little demon asked pushing himself into a sitting position on your lap and beaming up at you.

It all came rushing back to you then, that you’d accidentally summoned a demon, who, according to the book you were now bound in contract with. Deciding it was in your best interests to play along for now you asked, “What kind of adventure were you hoping for?”

“Is there more than one kind?” the chibi demon asked confused, tilting his head to the side, a finger beginning to dig for gold in one nostril.

“I guess not,” you said slowly, wondering if this particular demon might not be a bit slow, “What do you want to do on your adventure then Demon?”

“I don’t know! You’re not supposed to know what you do on your adventure ahead of time, that wouldn’t be any fun at all,” The demon lectured you with a frown, then added on seriously “Something fun, but first my name isn’t Demon it’s Luffy remember?”

“Okay then Luffy,” you placated hesitantly, then tried again, desperately trying to figure out what you’d have to do to fulfill this contract, “Where would you like to go?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been to the human world before,” he told you cheerfully, glancing every which way as if something new and exciting would pop up at any minute if he just looked around hard enough.

“But first, can you make me big again? I don’t like being small,” he asked staring up at you with enormous puppy dog eyes.

“Why would I do that?” you retorted immediately defensive in the face of his adorable pout, “You attacked me when you were big. How do I know you won’t do it again?”

“Attacked you?” He asked confused, “I didn’t attack you!”

You gaped at him, shocked at his audacity, “You grabbed on to me hard enough to leave bruises! I thought I was going to die!”

Seeing his confused face you rolled up your sleeves where, sure enough his handprints were outlined in bruises on your biceps. He stared in shock, his hand coming out to gently lay over the bruises as if trying to confirm he’d made them, before apparently realizing he was small now and they wouldn’t match the outlines.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” he said seriously, “I was just trying to figure out why you were running away when you summoned me. I thought we were playing. I’d never hurt my friend.”

He looked so genuinely miserable at the thought of accidentally hurting you, that against your better judgment you were forced to believe him, “Just be more careful in the future okay?”

“Does that mean you forgive me?” he asked hopefully, “I promise I won’t ever hurt you like that again. I gotta remember that humans are fragile.”

You were a bit offended at the idea of being considered fragile, but compared to him, who if you remembered correctly, had a body made like rubber you probably were pretty fragile in comparison.

“I suppose I can forgive you this once, just so long as you don’t do it again,” you said after a moment’s deliberation. After all from his perspective it probably was pretty confusing, seeing you run away when you were the one who called in the first place.

“I promise!” Luffy swore with such fervency that it made you believe he would be keeping that promise to the best of his ability.

“Does that mean you’ll make me big again?” he questioned staring up at you with hopeful eyes.

“Um sure I guess,” you told him with a shrug before realizing there was a problem, “Just how should I go about doing that then?”

Luffy gave you a completely blank look in response, “How should I know? You’re the summoner not me.”

You fought the urge to face palm in frustration, “I guess I haven’t explained yet.”

“Luffy I’m not sure how to make you big again, because I am most definitely not a summoner,” you explained carefully, wondering if he was going to be angry at you, “I was just reading the spells in the book aloud. I didn’t actually think they did anything. Before you appeared I was adamant that demons didn’t exist. In fact I’m still not all too sure I’m not dreaming.”

Luffy promptly reached out and pinched your cheek, making you squeak in pain, “Will you stop that?!”

“Look it hurt so you’re not dreaming,” he explained simply, “And obviously demons exist because I’m here aren’t I? And you’re a summoner because you brought me here, so I have no doubts you can make me big again if you just try really hard!”

You weren’t sure if it was the sheer, stupid simplicity of his thought process, or if it was because he was so fervent in his beliefs of his own existence, but in that moment your doubts about demons fell away. You were going to have to simply accept that they existed and move on or spend the rest of your life having an existential crisis.

“Okay,” you told him with a fortifying breath, knowing that even though you’d resolved to finally believe what was right in front of your face you were probably going to continue having moments of doubt, “I can do this.”

“You can,” Luffy affirmed with a fervent nod.

Deciding the best place to start with turning Luffy back to normal was the thing that got you into this mess in the first place you looked around and found the book on the ground beside you. Picking it up, you absently scooped up Luffy from your lap as you stood, and moved the two of you from the floor on to the couch.

He didn’t protest and so you didn’t notice as you carefully settled him back into your lap like you would for a small toddler and opened the book in such a way that you could both read it, to the first intact page, deciding to read everything there was about the Chibi spell, as you’d begun calling it in your mind.

_Accipe Deamone, ut parvo  
Sicut hoc quod dico… ()_

_This spell is designed to miniaturize any demon it’s cast on in the hopes of minimizing the damage they can cause. It is especially useful in dealing with demons who are too large for you to easily contain (ie over ten feet in height)_

You paused there and gaped, your new resolution to believe clashing with this newfound information, “Are there really demons over ten feet tall?”

“Sure!” Luffy told you immediately, “I don’t actually have any in my Conclave yet, but there are lots of giants! The ones we met were really cool! They’re warriors from a place called Elbaf, and they were fighting over how caught the biggest meat for over a hundred years! Isn’t that cool?”

“What’s a Conclave?” you asked confused.

“It’s a group of all my friends!” Luffy told her eagerly, “I have a swordsman who uses three swords, a weather controlling navigator, a lying sniper, an incubus cook, a reindeer doctor, a limb-sprouting archeologist, a cyborg and a living skeleton so far, and now maybe a human too!”

You gaped at him, not even sure how to begin processing what he’d told you. Did you start with the strange characters he’d listed, or the part where apparently he was trying to include you. Added to the fact that you got the feeling there was a lot more to being a part of a Conclave then what he was telling you. After a long moment you decided for your sanity to pretend he hadn’t said anything and turned back to the book to continue reading.

_The idea for the spell is to control the demon using a command word of your choosing to shrink them to their smaller size if they get out of hand. Unfortunately the spell doesn’t take away their powers, and shouldn’t be used in the place of another protective spell in case of a direct attack._

_The positive aspect of this spell is, that unlike other spells this one is permanent, and the command chosen will forever shrink the demon down when used by the summoner who cast the spell, so chose your word wisely._

You fought the urge to hide your face in your hands as you realized that for the rest of his life, if you said the word Chibi to him Luffy would be shrinking down to this pint-sized form. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too big of an issue, as all you had to do was fulfill his contract and send him home, and then they’d never meet again.

If that didn’t work well… You comforted yourself with the fact that despite it sounding completely and utterly stupid if you had to yell the world “chibi” at Luffy to contain him, at least it wasn’t a word that generally came up in casual conversation so you wouldn’t be shrinking him on accident.

_Beware, this spell while permanent also comes with a permanent link between Demon and summoner, and thus shouldn’t be used lightly. It is a continuous strain on the summoner’s magic to have this sort of link, and if the summoner overextends themselves, they can face a magical backlash that can have all kinds of unpleasant consequences._

You frowned in thought. You didn’t feel at all drained, though the idea of a permanent link to a demon wasn’t a pleasant one, you actually weren’t too worried. Luffy didn’t seem to be too terrible for a creature called a demon, certainly not at all like the book had warned on the summoning page. So either you’d gotten really lucky with your summon, or the book had exaggerated a bit. You weren’t sure which idea made you more uncomfortable, and decided to leave that thought alone.

_In order to temporarily restore your demon to the proper size simply speak the word “omittere” and it will grow back to its proper size once more. To shrink him down again simply speak the chosen command word (Note: there is no need to repeat the entire spell only the command word)_

You sighed in relief, undoing the spell seemed simple enough. Glancing down at the Chibi in your lap, who was looking up at you hopefully you spoke the world aloud, “Omittere.” 

This time, you felt something tug at you, and for a brief second it felt like a strange wind was passing through your body, and then once again your breath was knocked out of your lungs. For a second you panicked, thinking something had gone wrong, and wondering if you were going to die, until the weight on your chest shifted.

“Alright!” Luffy cheered excitedly leaping around your living room like some demented frog, “I’m big again.”

Realizing it was just because Luffy had been sitting on you when he got big again and the weight and surprise had knocked you flat you breathed a sigh of relief before glancing down at the book to finish reading…

_Note it’s important to place the demon somewhere safe to return them to their proper size lest they accidentally squash something important._

You fought the urge to throw the book across the room. It honestly felt like the stupid thing was mocking you. Why they couldn’t have put the warnings at the top, and the actual spell at the bottom you didn’t know, though there was a voice in the back of your head that sounded a lot like one of your middle school teachers sternly telling you to read all of the directions first before starting something.

“Now we can go on our adventure!” Luffy informed you excitedly, bounding up to you and taking your hands eagerly, tugging you towards the door.

You were too dazed by his energy to protest, and your forward momentum only stopped when Luffy paused, his hands releasing yours and falling to his stomach just as an enormous gurgling sound filled your living room. He turned to you with wide puppy dog eyes and you could already tell what he was going to ask.

“We really should eat before going on our adventure huh?” you asked rhetorically, getting a frantic nod in return, “Alright. I’ll make us something. What would you like.”

“Meat!” Luffy cheered instantly, “Lots and lots of meat!”

You just shrugged, going with the flow now, and headed for the kitchen, “Sure I’ll see what I can do.”

Luckily you had plenty of sandwich meat, as you usually packed that for yourself for lunches on your class days, and it was the work of minutes to whip up some for yourself and your guest. It took about five seconds for it to disappear into Luffy’s mouth.

You gaped, utterly shocked, and more than a bit disgusted, as he chewed, his cheeks distended terribly from the amount of food he’d shoved into them. You could literally see the food travel down his esophagus to his stomach as his neck distended grotesquely to accommodate the enormous swallow.

“More!” he demanded holding out the empty plate. 

“Please?” he tacked as an afterthought looking up at you pleadingly, but you were too grossed out and shocked by the vanishing act of all ten of the sandwiches you’d made to respond.

Upon not receiving a response, Luffy apparently decided to help himself, hopping up from the chair and scurrying over to the fridge. You could only stare in undisguised awe and disgust as he literally began to devour almost everything he could get his hands on, though he appeared to not care for the array of vegetables in there, leaving them conspicuously untouched by themselves in the drawer.

He quickly moved on the freezer and then the pantry, and at some point you realized you were going to need to stop him before the literal human vacuum ate everything you had. Thus you did the only thing you could think of.

“Chibi!” you shouted anxiously, just in time to keep Luffy from reaching into the higher cupboards. That didn’t appear to stop him though, ignoring his shrunken state he simply stretched himself upwards, flinging himself on to the counter and then latching on to the cupboard door, prying it open easily, and happily tearing into the few snack items you kept there.

Desperately you reached out and snagged him by the back of his vest, holding him suspended above the floor, just in time to save the last packet of rice crackers. Staring around at the mess and the damage, not for the first time you wondered what the hell you’d gotten yourself into.

“Hey! I’m little again! Why am I little again?” Luffy asked with a pout, crossing his arms as best he could swinging from your hand like a naughty kitten.

“You ate, all my food,” you told him weakly, staring around your poor kitchen unhappily.

“I was hungry,” Luffy informed you, as if that somehow explained how a slender, but muscular guy could put away enough food for over a hundred meals in under ten minutes and not gain an ounce.

“But I’m not anymore so let’s go on an adventure!” Luffy cheered excitedly.

“Forget adventure, the only place we’re going is the grocery store, otherwise neither of us will have anything to eat for dinner tonight,” you told him with a sigh.

“Right,” Luffy said nodding seriously, “Food and then adventure, that’s important.”

“Okay, before I make you big again, you have to promise me you’ll do your best to keep out of trouble,” you told him firmly, feeling as if you were speaking to a small child, speaking of which… “How old are you anyway?”

“Dunno,” Luffy told her with a shrug, “Nami calls it adol, adalisi, ad, being young but not a baby.”

“Adolescence?” you prompted curiously.

“Yeah that,” Luffy told you with a nod.

“So you don’t know how many years old you are?” you tried again.

“No, why would I? I lost count of those a long time ago,” he told you with a shrug.

You gaped, wondering if he had actually lived so long that he’d essentially forgotten, or was just not quite bright enough to remember in the first place. Honestly from what you’d seen it might actually be both. Then you shook your head to clear it and tried to get back on topic.

“So, grocery store. You’re going to behave right?” you asked sternly, giving him a gentle shake for emphasis.

“Okey dokey,” Luffy agreed cheerfully.

You weren’t really sure if that was enough, but it was going to have to be, “Omittere.”

…~oO*Oo~…

You tried to keep from screaming in frustration as you continued on your walk to the grocery store. Honestly you hadn’t thought it would be this bad, it was only a few blocks from your house. You’d forgotten to take into account that Luffy lived in some strange other world and things were likely to be very different here from there.

At least that’s what you told yourself as you yanked on Luffy’s collar to keep him from stepping into a busy street once again. Because he was rubber he probably wouldn’t be hurt if he actually got hit by a car, but whoever hit him might not be so lucky. Plus even if they were okay their car wouldn’t be, and she did not want to be the one to try to explain to the Police how Luffy could get right back up after being run over without a scratch on him.

“Luffy, for the last time you need to stay on the sidewalks,” you lectured firmly, keeping a secure hand on his collar. You’d learned from experience that trying to grab on to his arm or hand did absolutely nothing but stretch his arm out as the demon kept walking unimpeded.

The poor man who’d seen that had walked away muttering under his breath about alcohol and therapy. You’d winced in sympathy, but hadn’t been able to say anything reassuring, too busy trying to keep Luffy out of trouble.

“But look at all those strange machines!” Luffy told you excitedly gesturing to the cars, his voice loud and carrying, “They’re so cool! I want to ride in one.”

You grimaced as you noted the strange looks you were getting from passersby, and you honestly couldn’t blame them. Still you had to do your best to deter their interest, lest they report you to authorities and both you and your new demon friend ended up either wards in a mental hospital or as metaphorical lab rats.

“Yes Luffy, the cars are very neat, and I know you don’t have them where you come from,” you told him, allowing your voice to carry slightly, “I have one at home though, and I promise you can look at it later, and I’ll even give you a ride okay?”

You nearly slumped in relief as the woman near you who’d been eyeing you like you were a Looney Toon looked away mumbling about foreigners. 

“Really?” Luffy asked excitedly, “You promise?”

“I promise, just try to stay close to me alright,” you asked tiredly, feeling drained by his boundless enthusiasm.

“Okay, it’s a deal,” he cheered brightly, grabbing hold of your hand, and allowing you to guide him down the sidewalks. 

You glanced around and found a suitably empty alleyway and pulled him down it so you could have some privacy, “Luffy, you need to listen to me okay?”

Something in your voice must’ve caught his attention as he turned away from looking at the street to stare into your eyes instead, “Do you remember what I said about not using your rubber powers before we left the house?”

Luffy nodded. You’d made him sit still and listen to you lecture about being careful and not using them on your trip, with the promise of the last packet of Rice Crackers if he paid attention.

“Well shouting about how everything is new and different is just as bad,” you warned him, “It attracts people’s attention, and that’s the last thing we want. I know you’ve got questions, and I’m more than happy to answer them, but wait until we’re back home okay?”

“I don’t understand,” Luffy told you unhappily, “Why don’t we want attention? Attention is good right?”

“Not this kind of attention Luffy, this kind of attention could get us hurt or killed if the wrong people come after us,” you warned gravely.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he told you patting your head reassuringly, “I’ll protect you!”

It was said with such sincerity that you had to smile at him, a warm feeling flooding through you at his words, but still.

“You don’t understand Luffy, there are a lot of people in this world who could potentially want to hurt us, hundreds, thousands, even millions of people will not like the fact that you’re a demon or that I summoned you here,” you told him coaxingly.

“But I’m strong! Hundreds or millions doesn’t matter! If they try to hurt you I’ll beat them all up! You’re my friend,” he insisted firmly.

“I know you’re strong Luffy,” you told him still warm. When was the last time someone so easily declared you their friend? “But I’m not. And I don’t think you could fight that many people and protect me at the same time, even though I know you’d try your best.”

“So if you could please just try to be a little quieter. Like I said I’ll answer all your questions when we get back home,” you pressed worriedly.

Seeing you were seriously concerned about it Luffy finally acquiesced, “Okay I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask for,” you replied with a smile taking his hand again and leading him back out of the alley.

The entire way to the grocery store his head was on a swivel as he stared at everything around, gaping at the strange buildings and signs, and all the people around. However true to his word he kept his mouth shut.

Unfortunately it appeared the Grocery store was too much for him. Or more like the doors into the Grocery store were too much for him. He practically jumped out of his skin as the automatic door swung open.

“Did you see that?!” he asked awed, “They opened all by themselves!”

“They’re automatic doors,” you explained unable to stop the amused smile on your face at his open wonder at something you saw and used everyday, “They detect motion, so when you move they open.”

Luffy took several minutes to test this theory, nearly running into them several times, as it took him a couple tries to realize they needed a second to respond. You did your best to completely ignore the bystanders who were murmuring about “special” people, glaring at them all defensively as you saw them judging your new friend. It wasn’t Luffy’s fault he’d never seen technology like this before, and even if he had been special needs, that didn’t make him a freak show. 

“Don’t you people have something better to do than gawk at my friend,” you hissed loudly, at the people who’d stopped to stare.

The small group dispersed, either muttering about you being rude, or shooting you sympathetic looks, neither of which you appreciated. You squeaked in surprise as something glomped you from behind. Luckily the feeling of rubber was familiar to you by now, and you didn’t try to deck Luffy who was hugging you happily.

“Luffy, what are you doing?” you asked confused.

“That was the first time you said I was your friend!” He exclaimed cheerfully, “I’m celebrating!”

You flushed, unable to help yourself, but settled into the embrace, turning so you could hug him back, “You said it first, and anyway we are aren’t we?”

“Don’t be stupid! Of course we are!” he told you vehemently, a wide beaming smile on his face, “And we’re going to have lots and lots of fun together! But first food!”

You smiled fondly and shook your head, stepping out of his hold and grabbing a cart, “You’re right, so lets get to it.”

He grinned and finally allowed you to pull him inside the building. You couldn’t help your smile of amusement, as he gaped around at all the food, “Wow! This is amazing! So much food!”

He was practically drooling, and you made sure to keep a firm grip on him to keep him from running off, “Luffy, you absolutely can’t eat anything until after I’ve paid for it okay?”

“But the food!” he protested, staring at it with stars in his eyes.

“Luffy if you don’t behave I will make you little again!” you threatened, and he slumped in defeat before nodding in agreement.

Shopping with Luffy was definitely an experience. It was like shopping with an ADHD child with a penchant for unintentional mischief, along with a severe case of eyes bigger than the stomach. Though with the way Luffy ate it wouldn’t surprise you if he actually could eat everything in sight.

Every time you turned your back something new “mysteriously” appeared in the cart. This was especially true in the meat isles, and somehow, upon seeing Luffy’s unhappy pout when you tried to put the things back that he’d added you couldn’t help but give in, nearly every single time.

You knew your wallet was going to take a hit with this, and cursed your inability to say no to the demon whose puppy dog eyes were just as effective in his normal form as his little form. Honestly he reminded you of a cross between a big kid and a puppy, always eager and excited for everything, affectionate, adventurous, trusting and loyal.

It also meant he was easily distracted which was at once good and bad. You nearly had several heart attacks when you turned around to talk to him only to realize he wasn’t by the cart anymore. Luckily like a puppy he seemed to be very food motivated.

Thus you generally found him fairly easily each time, trying to heckle the store workers into giving him free samples. The sad part is a lot of the time it actually worked. Still after several heart stopping moments you decided to make it a rule that he had to keep one hand on the cart at all times, or be Chibi-fied again. Honestly you were starting to contemplate a leash for him.

He pouted at that, but this time you managed to put your foot down and insist despite his best broken-hearted stare.

He was also always getting into things, or accidentally knocking them over. You winced in sympathy at the thought of those poor bruised apples, but as you’d argued with the store employee they really shouldn’t have stacked them that high in the first place. Someone might’ve gotten hurt! Outside of that you’d mostly manage to either hide the evidence of Luffy’s tampering or gone along with what he wanted and decided to buy whatever product it was.

Even though he should be driving you bonkers, you found yourself laughing more than you had in a long time at his antics. He was just that charming, and it felt good to be able to laugh like this. A part of you felt like a little kid again.

You could see what the book had meant about demon’s having silver tongues, as you suddenly realized he’d talked you into running with the cart down the aisle so you could both ride it. Once you realized what you were doing you managed to convince him to stop before the two of you could get caught and kicked out without your food, though it didn’t stop him from somehow coaxing a promise out of you that you could do it again next time.

By the time you arrived in the checkout line you were red faced from a combination of happy laughter and embarrassment. Still giggling at Luffy’s latest antics, trying to convince the poor harassed looking cashier to let him use the scanner.

Eventually you paid, trying not to cry for your pitiable wallet when you saw the total, and the two of you headed out again. You could swear the poor grocery workers let out a collective sigh of relief as you finally left the building. Honestly you felt a bit bad for them, but shrugged it off in the face of Luffy’s delight.

It was as you were parking the cart that you realized the problem, “How the heck are we going to get this all back to my apartment?”

Your cart was literally stacked with groceries, so much so that it was overflowing.

“Don’t worry! I can get it!” Luffy assured you happily, beginning to grab the handles of bags, and slowly but surely emptying the cart until only a few bags remained. You gaped at him, holding at least three hundred pounds of groceries without even breaking a sweat.

“How are you doing that?” you asked awed.

“Doing what?” Luffy asked confused.

“Carrying all that!” you elaborated incredulously.

“This?” Luffy asked raising the bags easily as if they didn’t weigh a thing, “This isn’t so bad, me and my brothers used to lug around these huge tigers so our caretaker Dadan could cook them for us, now those were heavy! Ace used to call me weak all the time, since I could only handle the smaller ones, but I’m a lot stronger now! I bet I could drag five tigers all by myself!”

You nodded dumbfounded, wondering if the tigers he was talking about were like the tigers you knew existed in your world, which you knew weighed upwards of a hundred and forty pounds on the small side. Deciding not to think about it you instead took the lead on the way home, listening intently as Luffy cheerfully told you stories of the monstrous beasts in the forests he grew up in, and praying to every deity you knew he was making things up.

After all, Luffy for all his sweetness was terrifying enough, you didn’t want to even think about others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally figured out the End Notes! Thanks to everyone who left Kudos on Chapter 1! You guys are awesome!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so here's the thing. I got tired of alternating between the reader insert form of "you" and "she" in the different stories I was writing, both Draclet and Taste used "she" while the others used "you" and I was getting really confused and so was my poor beta. To fix it unless you guys comment otherwise I'm switching it all over to she, just because that's closer to what I'm used to and leaving the (name) as "(name)". I know technically it's just one step away from being an OC as opposed to Reader Insert but honestly it was making me crazy. If I get enough comments I will fix it and go back to "you" but otherwise it's probably going to be "she" from now on.

She spent the rest of her evening after returning from the grocery store just talking and hanging out with Luffy. He had all sorts of questions about the things he had seen today, the first and most important about the cars he’d seen on the way to the grocery store.

She’d learned by now that the best way to get Luffy to do what she wanted was to bribe him. Thus she informed him if he helped her put the groceries away without eating any of it she would take him to see hers. It had taken him a long time to think that one over, and she wasn’t sure whether she should be amused that he was so excited to see her car, or appalled that the idea of not snitching as the food was put away was so difficult for him.

In the end the car had actually won out, and the groceries were put away after some careful direction with no incidences. That done she’d led him down to the parking garage on the other side of the apartment complex. He’d been awed by the number of cars down there pausing to ooh and ah over them, touching every single one. He’d been a bit confused at first why they weren’t moving, but eventually she’d managed to convey that they were only used for transportation.

Apparently in the demon world they still used ships and horses for most of their over water and on land transportation. Knowing that she’d been able to simplify things for Luffy by using ship metaphors, equating things like parking with docking and turning on the ignition with raising the anchor, which he understood much better having apparently spent a good amount of time on a ship.

He’d been extremely excited by the sight of her car in particular, mostly because it was a bright fire engine red. Other than that it was nothing too special, just an SUV. Still Luffy loved it and had insisted that it must have a name, as ships had names. He’d been appalled that she hadn’t named it already, and had quickly set to rectifying this.

Unfortunately it turned out Luffy wasn’t too good with naming things, because someone had once told him it was best to name things after people and things that he liked. She wasn’t about to name her poor car “Meat” or “Food” or “Rubber” eventually she had settled on the name Mugiwara as it was the Japanese name for the type of hat he was wearing.

Luffy had been very touched about her naming the car after his hat, and had extracted a very firm promise from her to take good care of the car. It turned out the hat was his special treasure given to him by a fellow demon named Shanks.

It was a little hard to follow Luffy’s story telling, as he tended to leave details out and jump from place to place, but eventually after several questions she thought she’d managed to get the gist of it.

Apparently when Luffy was very young his father, a demon named Dragon of all things had sent him to visit his grandfather Garp for a little while as he was about to declare war on a neighboring Conclave because he didn’t agree with their ideals. Luffy hadn’t been happy, wanting to fight himself, but he’d agreed to go.

His grandfather was apparently a big shot in another Conclave from his father’s and the two had never seen eye to eye. Thus the entire time he was with him he was trying to convince Luffy to join his Conclave as opposed to his father’s. Luffy, being extremely young at the time hadn’t really made his mind up yet.

One day his grandpa got called away for some reason of another, and the village he left Luffy in was attacked in his absence. Luffy had tried to fight, having befriended the people in the village and not wanting to see them slaughtered. However he was unable to fight back and was nearly killed until another demon stepped in.

This demon’s name was Shanks, and he was the leader of his own roaming Conclave. Apparently Shanks had been impressed by Luffy’s spirit, which had led him to involve himself. He and his Conclave slaughtered the invaders with ease, and Luffy had ended up with a serious case of hero worship.

Shanks had stayed for almost the entire month of his grandfather’s absence and the two had grown close. Apparently Shanks was as much of a goofball as Luffy was and the two had a lot in common. Shanks’ Conclave was very different from most normal Conclaves as they liked to travel a lot with no set destination or home base.

This was different from both Luffy’s father and grandfather whose Conclaves owned set territories. Apparently the roaming Conclaves pretty much went wherever they pleased a bit like Gypsies, never settling in a single place for long. However because their world was mostly ocean they tended to travel more by ship then by land.

Luffy had been enamored by this idea, and loved the freedom implied in being able to roam the World’s seas. Before Shanks had left, Luffy had promised he would instead of joining his father or grandfather’s Conclaves start up his very own and roam the seas like Shanks, swearing they’d meet up again some day.

Shanks had apparently been very impressed and had given Luffy his own hat off his head, telling him he could return it when they met up again on the high seas because the hat was Shanks’ treasure. Luffy had agreed and at age seventeen had set out on his own with his father’s blessings to make a Conclave of his own.

Thus because her car was now named after the hat, it too must be treated like a treasure too. Its official name was to be the Mugiwara Mobile. Luffy had been thrilled, and had, after some brief instructions on how to open the door carefully so as to not damage it, hopped into the Mugiwara Mobile for its’ maiden voyage.

She’d briefly tried to explain that she’d driven the car before, but Luffy insisted since it hadn’t been named before it didn’t count. She didn’t bother to argue as it seemed to mean so much to him.

Once they were settled she’d proceeded to show him how things worked inside the car, by starting the engine. Luffy had jumped in surprise at the noise of the engine turning over. Apparently he’d never seen or heard of an engine before, and had wondered how it worked.

She spent several long minutes, explaining how the process of combusting gasoline fueled the car by turning the axles for the wheels, and how it produced waste that was called exhaust. She’d gone on several tangents that she thought he might find interesting including normal car mileage, and clean energy.

At the end of her long and detailed explanation, she’d asked if he understood. Luffy had agreed he did, and then with a firm nod and resolute smile declared it a “mystery car.”

He hadn’t understood a single word, despite nodding through her entire explanation and making agreeing noises in all the right places. Her shock had made her flail around in surprise, knocking into the horn. Both of them had jumped, and Luffy had been positively captivated, once she explained what it was for.

He’d eagerly begun playing with the horn, pressing it in long and short bursts to his heart’s delight. Unfortunately because they were in an underground parking garage the sound echoed horribly, nearly deafening her. To save her hearing and prevent a migraine she’d wrestled him away from it, an extremely difficult feat considering his rubbery limbs and super strength. In the end she’d had to threaten to chibi-fy him and not feed him dinner before he agreed to stop.

After Luffy had spent several entertaining minutes playing with every single button he could press. Unsurprisingly the radio and the car horn were his two favorite things, though special mentions had to be given to the automatic windows and windshield wipers, which had held him captivated for several minutes.

She’d also explained to him that despite the fact that he was rubber he was going to have to wear a seatbelt as it was law to do so. Apparently mentioning it was the law wasn’t enough for him. It turned out that the roaming Conclaves were not only known for their freedom but also for their blatant disregard of any sort of rules or regulations, which meant the argument “it’s the law” held very little weight for Luffy.

Eventually she’d convinced him by telling him that if he didn’t she would probably get stopped by a Police officer, who would give her a ticket, the ticket meant she would have to pay a fine, and if she had to pay a fine she would have less money for food and adventures. Needless to say Luffy had immediately agreed to buckle up.

Finally ready to go she’d threatened Luffy one last time into behaving, and announced they were just going around the block. She’d immediately been stopped by Luffy, who didn’t want to go around the block, he wanted to go on an adventure.

She’d then been forced to explain to him that it was getting late, and they didn’t really have time for an adventure right this minute because she had school tomorrow. Luckily demons did have schools, though only for the very young, or the very scholarly.

Luffy had been very impressed that she was going to a school, even though she tried to explain that these days a good chunk of the populace in the U.S did . That it was even considered mandatory until you were eighteen. He’d asked her very seriously about her dream, she’d shrugged and said scientist probably, though having heard Luffy’s dream of freedom hers felt a bit trite in comparison.

Still Luffy hadn’t judged, just nodded seriously and agreed if she needed school for her dream it was important to go. He’d then proceeded to get out of the car.

She’d asked him if he didn’t want to go for a ride anymore, and he’d explained that he would wait until the maiden voyage of the Mugiwara Mobile could take them on an adventure. Nothing she said could persuade him otherwise. She’d been pondering what they could do for their adventure all day, and had eventually asked if he wanted to maybe go to the beach the day after tomorrow for his adventure since she wouldn’t have school then, so long as it wasn’t raining.

Luffy had agreed enthusiastically, wondering eagerly what beaches in the human world would be like, as the two of them went back inside, though not until Luffy had spent several excited minutes playing with the car remote, accidentally setting off the panic alarm five times.

Back inside once again Luffy had immediately declared himself hungry. She’d been about to scold that he’d eaten not too long ago, when her own stomach had given a fierce gurgle, reminding her that earlier the demon had eaten everything in her house before she’d gotten a single bite, and she’d been forced to use the last of the rice crackers to bribe him into behaving. Luffy had laughed uproariously and declared it time for dinner, and she was forced to agree.

She’d been intending to make a nice hamburger helper for dinner, as it was relatively quick and easy, and she’d bought several family size boxes, which she immediately set about doing with Luffy hanging anxiously over her shoulder. It turned out he was a bit of a menace in the kitchen, always trying to snitch things when she wasn’t looking.

After the third time he’d unsuccessfully tried to snitch a piece of raw hamburger out of the pan and burned his fingers in the process she’d resorted to whacking his hand with a wooden spoon every time he got close. While it didn’t hurt him, it did startle him enough to deter him.

Luffy also spent the majority of his time while waiting, either asking her if it was done yet, or drooling as he peered impatiently at it over her shoulder. Apparently he’d never heard the phrase “a watched pot never boils.”

Eventually though it was done, knowing about his appetite, she’d quickly dished all she thought she might want on to her plate and simply handed the rest of the pot off to Luffy, who accepted it happily. His effusive praise of the hamburger helper made her blush, though he did tell her she would someday have to try his incubi Sanji’s cooking as it was the best he’d ever had.

Unfortunately despite the pot being over two family sized portions it wasn’t enough for Luffy to feel full, and so the two of them had also had cake dessert to hopefully ease Luffy’s hunger pangs. She allowed herself a small slice and gave the rest to Luffy to devour. Luckily that seemed to do the trick.

Luffy had then very kindly volunteered to help with the dishes. She’d been thankful, until she realized he didn’t actually know what he was doing, and had ended up breaking several things. During all this he discovered the retractable sprayer that was used to rinse dishes in the sink.

Cleaning the dishes suddenly turned into an all out water war in the kitchen, and she’d been forced to run to the bathroom, and dig out one of her old squirt guns to fight back. Luffy had been enamored with the squirt gun, and had happily agreed to switch her. 

He discovered to his dismay, that unlike the dish sprayer the gun didn’t have an endless supply of water and he’d been forced to surrender, while she cheered in victory. It was a lot of fun, though cleaning up after not so much. Luckily her kitchen and dining room areas were all tile and easy to mop up. They hadn’t gotten any on the carpet in the living room, so it wasn’t too bad.

This at least Luffy was pretty helpful with as it was very similar to swabbing a deck, something he had plenty of practice with. By the time everything was cleaned up it was time for bed, which led to her next problem.

“Why can’t I sleep with you?” Luffy complained once more, “My Conclave lets me sleep with them!”

“The boys and girls sleep together?” she asked skeptically.

“Well, no Robin and Nami have their own room on our ship, but us guys all sleep together,” Luffy explained.

“Luffy you realize that I’m not a guy right?” she pointed out, just to be sure.

“Really?” Luffy asked surprised, “But where are your boobs?”

For long moments she could only make outraged squeaking sounds, as she contemplated strangling the rubber demon. After all it wasn’t like her chest was small, a respectable C-cup, bordering on D.

“They’re right here,” she snapped, pulling her shirt tight to her figure so he could see better.

“Oh,” Luffy frowned reaching out and poking one of them, “Are you sure? They’re awfully small…”

That was it! She shrieked and launched herself at the demon, intent on strangling him, only to realize that because he was essentially made of rubber nothing she could do would hurt him. However in launching herself at him she did find a weakness, as when she went to get up after knocking them both to the ground she accidentally ran her fingers over Luffy’s sides.

He let out one of the most adorable giggles she’d ever heard, and a wicked grin danced across her face. Her fingers immediately began to dance up and down his sides.

“Take it back!” she demanded, over Luffy’s helpless howls of laughter, clinging to him to prevent any attempts to throw her off, “admit that I’m a girl!”

“Ha-ha- o-okay you-you’re a girl,” Luffy wheezed through his laughter and she stopped a triumphant look on her face. 

However Luffy was bound and determined to have his revenge and immediately tried to tickle her, she smirked smugly as he ran his fingers up her sides to no effect, and then taunted, “I’m not ticklish!”

“Not at all?” Luffy asked guilelessly, completely surprise on his face.

“Well there is one spot,” she admitted with a smile, “but just the one.”

“Where’s that?” he prompted innocently.

“Oh its…” she paused in realization, then shot him an accusing look, “Like hell am I telling you! Nice try rubber boy!”

“Now, since I’m a girl and you’re a boy, we have to sleep separately okay?” she told him, feeling convinced she’d finally won this argument.

“But I don’t want to,” Luffy told her with a pout.

“Too bad! My guest rooms are perfectly nice you know! Besides you were just fine last night when I passed out,” she pointed out reasonably.

“But I was with you then,” he informed her sadly, “I don’t wanna be alone.”

“Haven’t you ever slept by yourself before?” she asked genuinely curious.

“Sometimes,” he admitted with a frown, “When I was really little I slept in dad’s room, and then with grandpa. When grandpa left I was all by myself, even when Shanks was there during the day I was all by myself at night. It was scary, but at least I had Shanks and Makino.”

“But then, after Shanks left and gramps came back he took me to Dadan, Dadan is from a Raiding Conclave, like the one that attacked the village I was staying in. I didn’t want to stay with her, but gramps said I had to because he had to do work for his Conclave,” Luffy told her solemnly.

“My brother Ace was there, but he wasn’t my brother yet, and I didn’t want to be friends with Dadan and her Conclave cuz they made me think of the bad ones who attacked. I was really, really lonely, it was the worst pain ever,” Luffy informed her with a shiver, hugging himself.

Her heart ached seeing him like that, sad and small and vulnerable. Luffy wasn’t supposed to be like that at all, he was supposed to be lively, happy, energetic and larger than life.

“But then Ace let me be his brother, him and Sabo too, and then we all slept together and I wasn’t lonely anymore,” Luffy told her bouncing back, “And after when they left to have adventures I wasn’t worried about Dadan anymore, because even though she was a raiding Conclave leader she still wasn’t bad.”

“Then when I set out to form my own Conclave I found Zoro, my swordsman really quick, and I slept with him and the others when they came, so I was never lonely,” Luffy finished before turning back to her with the most sad and adorable puppy eyes she’d ever seen, “So can I sleep with you?”

After a story like that it was impossible to say no, though she didn’t feel comfortable sharing her bed with him as he was, and there was no room for him to sleep anywhere else in there. The room was fairly big, but it was also fairly cluttered.

“How about a compromise,” she proposed at last.

“What’s a compromise?” Luffy asked cluelessly, “Can I eat it?”

“No,” she chuckled, somehow not surprised, “You can’t eat it.”

“A compromise basically means if I agree to let you sleep with me you have to do something for me in return,” she explained carefully.

“Okay,” Luffy agreed instantly, “What do you want me to do?”

Once more she was taken aback and then warmed by his instant trust. He hadn’t even asked what she wanted from him first before agreeing, “I will let you sleep with me if you agree to be little for it.”

She figured if he was little it would be less like having a man in her bed, and more like a child, which she’d done before during her babysitting days in high school.

“Kay, make me little,” Luffy agreed, no hesitation at all despite proclaiming to not like it very much waiting patiently for her to speak the word.

“Chibi,” she said instantly, watching fascinated as he shrunk down to his smaller form. She would probably never get tired of seeing that.

“Alright, this way Luffy,” she told him leading him towards her room.

It was then she realized she had no pajamas for him to sleep in. Luckily she did have some T-shirts and Luffy wasn’t all that fussed about it, and would’ve easily slept in his clothes without complaint.

Still she insisted he be comfortable and offered him one of the shirts, and went into the bathroom so they could both change in privacy. When she got back Luffy was eagerly bouncing on the bed. This time she was far too tired to join in, but somehow ended up promising to try it with him sometime even knowing it was a bad idea.

Her bed was California King sized, part of the reason there was so little floor space in her room. It was one of her few indulgences, she liked to be comfortable as she slept, and actually had a multitude of blankets and pillows everywhere. At one point she almost lost Luffy in them, but eventually they both settled in, with plenty of room, and she hit the lights, setting the alarm on her phone for the morning.

As she slowly began to fall asleep, she felt something shift on the bed, and suddenly Luffy was cuddled into her side, his fluffy hair tickling her chin as he wrapped his arms around her. Instinct had her returning the embrace, cuddling him like a toddler. It was nice, and it reminded her of something.

“Hey Luffy?” she asked quietly.

“Hmm?” he questioned sleepily.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

“Why thanks?” he asked with a yawn.

“For having fun with me, for being my friend,” she explained, trying to find a way to convey, that she hadn’t had as much fun, hadn’t laughed like she had today with him, well, ever.

“Stupid,” he scolded squeezing her, “Friends always have fun, and you’re a good friend to have.”

Touched she squeezed, back and slowly let herself fall into sleep’s embrace.

…~oO*Oo~…

The sound of her alarm jerked her awake, and she had a brief moment of panic as she realized she couldn’t move, her limbs completely unresponsive, that is until she realized just why that was. Luffy’s arms were wrapped tightly around her torso would around it several times with his head comfortably situated in the crook of her neck. This was especially impressive considering his diminutive size at the moment.

He grumbled unhappily at the noise but continued to sleep, dead to the world. Knowing she had to get up she carefully maneuvered his rubbery limbs, stretching them open and squirming out of his grip. It was a several minute long struggle, but she did eventually manage to pry herself free, only to have the force she was using to free herself backfire as she tipped right over the edge of the bed on to the floor with a painful thump.

Luffy continued to sleep on, completely oblivious, and she rolled her eyes in amusement and fondness as she set about getting ready for the day. Luckily everything had been packed in advance. She just had to get ready for the day, pack herself a lunch and eat some breakfast.

Luckily her routine was pretty quick since she wasn’t too bothered about appearances for going to class. Instead she simply hopped in the shower to get clean, pulled her strawberry blond hair into a messy bun, put some brown simple eyeliner on to highlight her pale green eyes and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt. Packing her lunch was just as simple as she just made a quick sandwich, then added fruit, maybe some vegetables, some chips, and a cookie, then filled her water bottle from her Brita filter.

That done she set about making an enormous pan of eggs, normally she’d just make a few, but considering Luffy’s appetite she’d definitely have to make plenty if she wanted to come home to food still in her house. Luckily scrambled eggs were easy, quick, filling and relatively cheap. She also threw some bacon in the microwave and several pieces of toast in the toaster.

As she’d half suspected the smell of food was enough to coax Luffy out of sleep and into the kitchen. Still in his chibi form, wearing her oversized t-shirt, and his hat, and rubbing his eyes sleepily. Honestly she had to fight the urge to coo and cuddle him the sight was so adorable.

She quickly sent him back to get his own clothes, making note that they’d have to get him some of his own after she got home from school today. One he was dressed she returned him to normal size and the two of them sat down to eat together.

As they ate she gave Luffy a list of rules to follow while she was gone. She thought they were pretty simple, and was hoping against hope Luffy would follow them. They were as follows….

1\. Don’t go outside, answer the door, or let anyone know you’re here  
2\. Don’t make a mess, and if you do clean it up  
3\. Don’t break things  
4\. Don’t eat all the food  
5\. Don’t touch anything if you don’t know how to use it

Other than that he was pretty much free to do anything he wanted to keep himself entertained. She gave him a brief tutorial on how to use the television, and was extremely amused by how fascinated he was by it. Promising to show him how to work the desktop computer she kept at home when she got back, and that she would take him out shopping then to prepare for their beach adventure she left hoping against hope her apartment would still be standing when she got back.

…~oO*Oo~…

Luffy grinned as he eyed the remote. He was a bit sad that his new friend wasn’t going to be able to spend the day with him, but he understood she had to go pursue her dream. Plus this controller thingy with the TV box was really neat! It had so many buttons on it!

Eagerly he began to press them, jumping in shock when he accidentally adjusted the volume too high, and frantically pressing more buttons to get it to stop again. After pressing each button at least once to see what it would do he turned to the box. It worked a bit like those screens and visual denden mushi, which were small snails that could do things like project video, take pictures, and contact other denden mushi.

He kind of wondered if there was a Denden hidden in either the controller thingy or the box, but his friend had told him not to destroy things and he didn’t think she’d like it if he opened them to take a look.

Instead he started pushing buttons on the controller thingy and watching to see what kind of moving pictures he could find. Eventually a strange show with a mouse and a cat came on. He watched fascinated as the cat attempted to catch the mouse and failed every time to his elaborate escapes, laughing uproariously at his tricks.

That mouse was really smart! He wondered if he could find him and get him to join his Conclave. Chopper would probably like him a lot and would be able to translate what he was saying. The cat and mouse kept him entertained for a long time until his stomach started grumbling.

Immediately he dropped the control thingy and wandered into the kitchen to find himself something to eat. His friend had told him not to eat everything, did that mean he could eat most things? She hadn’t really been specific, but at the same time he didn’t want her upset either.

In the end he dug through the entire kitchen trying to find things that he could just eat. He found several packets of sliced meat that were pretty good, and all sorts of fun food in strange packages. He especially enjoyed the bright orange crunchy things with the picture of the funny cat in sunglasses breathing fire on the front even if they were a little spicy. 

He’d had to down a gallon of milk after eating them, accidentally spilling some on the floor in his haste to quench the burning afterwards. He thought Ace might like them, and wondered if his new friend might let him bring some back for his brother.

He also ate several strange chocolates that were also wrapped in bright orange, they were pretty good, though why humans ate them with paper on them he didn’t know. Honestly he thought it was a bit silly himself, but hey if that was what humans liked he had no right to judge.

Eventually he decided he’d eaten enough that his stomach wouldn’t be complaining until dinner time, and headed back to the box to watch more of the cat and mouse hoping it would give him clues on where to find the small creature so he could ask it to join his conclave.

To his dismay though, it wasn’t on the box anymore, instead something different was on. He desperately pushed the buttons on the control thingy to try and make it come back to no avail. Just as he was about to give up, a strange wild cry echoed from the box, and he stared in fascination, wondering what the box was going to show him now…

…~oO*Oo~…

It was the least amount of attention she’d paid in her classes, pretty much ever. She still managed to take notes, but she wasn’t sure how good they’d be. Her thoughts just kept going back to Luffy.

Knowing how destructive he was, and not prone to listen to rules or directions had her fretting terribly. She’d nearly run home several times now, with worst case scenarios running through her head. Luffy cutting his hand on a knife in the kitchen and bleeding with no help in sight, Luffy doing something stupid like trying to microwave a spoon and setting her apartment on fire, Luffy getting caught by the neighbors or police and taken away for government experimentation, Luffy slipping and falling in the bathroom and drowning in the bathtub.

Okay so she knew some of those were probably ridiculous, Luffy was from a fighting enclave, and likely knew his way around knives, and would be able to patch himself up if he hurt himself. It hadn’t been really clear, but she thought he’d seemed familiar with the kitchen appliances so hopefully the microwave was safe. He had already promised her not to draw attention, and considering no one had any reason to visit and the apartment closest to hers was empty, no one was likely to find him, and franky Luffy wasn’t clumsy so he probably hadn’t fallen down anywhere let alone in the bathroom. Still she couldn’t help but worry.

Thus when the clock finally signaled it was time to go she was already packed, up and out of her seat and rushing towards the door hoping to get home as fast as possible to Luffy. She didn’t even notice the odd stares from her classmates or professors at her uncharacteristic rush as she made her exit.

She seemed to make it home in record time and breathed a sigh of relief as the building came into view. It hadn’t burned down at least. Approaching her apartment she became a bit worried. It was very quiet, almost too quiet for a place where Luffy was.

Worriedly she dug out her key and fumbled it into the lock imagining worse case scenarios until the door swung open. Quickly stepping in she breathed a sigh of relief. Luffy was sat in front of the TV as still as a statue, wide brown eyes glued to the screen completely captivated.

“Luffy I’m back,” she greeted cheerfully.

“You’re home!” he cheered eagerly taking a quick second to glance over at her, a beaming smile on his face, before turning back to the TV, “Come here, come here, you gotta see this!”

Curiously she went over and glanced at the screen, which showed a forest of some kind, “What exactly am I looking at?”

“It’s going to happen!” Luffy told her eagerly, “They’re going to find him!”

“Find who?” she asked completely confused.

“The legendary Ape, king of the forest, the ever elusive Bigfoot!” Luffy whispered in hushed awe, “I just have to see him! They’re going to find him, and then I’m going to find him, and when I do I’ll ask him to join my Conclave!”

She laughed as she finally realized what Luffy was watching. Apparently he’d found Animal Planet and the show “Finding Bigfoot.”

“Luffy you realize they’re probably not going to find him right? It’s just a show and Bigfoot probably doesn’t exist?” she pointed out reasonably.

He stared at her shocked and betrayed, as if he was a child who’d just learned that Santa Claus wasn’t real, “But he has to! He has to join my Conclave!”

Settling in, she began to try to explain the legends behind Bigfoot, and included references to other legends like the Loch Ness monster, but Luffy was having none of it. Insisting such things had to be real, if not here then in his world. She’d conceded that was very possible as, as far as she knew, humans didn’t know anything about his world.

He’d cheered in victory, and she had just smiled amused, and relieved to find out that he was okay. That relief lasted up until she saw the mess in the kitchen. She groaned in exasperation at the sight of bright orange fingerprints all over the place and milk in puddles on the floor. Still if this was the worst of it she could deal, and she wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Luffy home anymore.

Now all that was left to do was clean the mess, get her homework done and take Luffy shopping in preparation for their adventure tomorrow. Honestly even though she’d seen the ocean hundreds of times with Luffy it was bound to be interesting and new, and she couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but this story doesn't have a pairing, if at any time you want to request one though or at least see some of them together even if it's not the end pairing let me know. Also reverse harem? yes or no?
> 
> Also special thanks to DemiTriXtr for commenting! :)


	4. Chapter 4

Taking Luffy shopping was as much a hassle as she thought it would be. It would’ve been much easier if they’d been able to take her car, but Luffy had refused that option stating it had to have it’s Maiden Voyage to the ocean tomorrow. The nearest mall was too far away for them to walk comfortably, especially if they were going to be buying all sorts of beach stuff, along with clothing for Luffy.

That in mind she’d resigned herself to taking the bus, which was exactly as much trouble as she feared it would be. Luffy had been thrilled by the lack of seatbelts and fascinated by the ropes he could pull to make the dinging noise to get the driver to stop.

The other passengers and the bus driver had all been extremely annoyed by the time they made it to the mall, but she was getting better at ignoring them. Before meeting Luffy she never would’ve done anything that would’ve upset the people around her, but now she felt the need to defend and protect him, in much the way she knew he would defend her. Thus she actually spent most of her time on the bus death glaring as best she could at the other passengers, daring them to say something to her friend.

The mall had also been quite the experience. Luffy had been fascinated by all the things you could buy in one building, that combined with the interesting technology had him giddy with excitement. She’d had to chase him down several times trying to make him stay with her so they could get their shopping done. 

The worst was when he’d spotted the RC Helicopters that the people at the kiosks liked to play with to attract customers. Luffy had been fascinated and had refused to leave for the longest time, in the end she’d caved and bought one for him to play with. He’d been thrilled.

However from then on she’d insisted he keep hold of her hand and not go running off after every little thing. Honestly she wouldn’t be surprised if Luffy was ADHD.

Luckily her lecture from the Grocery Store Excursion, and yes she felt it very deserving of its’ own title considering how much stress it had caused, despite also being fun, had stuck. This meant that Luffy managed to keep most of his questions to himself unless he couldn’t help it, and he kept his rubber powers completely under wraps.

Eventually she managed to drag him to a clothing store, which he deemed incredibly boring, and found him some nice looking, but durable clothing, including pajamas and underwear, which had been more than a little mortifying but necessary.

The only reason Luffy hadn’t run off or protested too much to the clothing is that she’d promised him she’d take him to Target afterwards to get all the fun things they’d need for their Beach Adventure. He had still whined about it, but in the end he’d complied readily enough, and even willingly carried the bags in one hand, his other attached to hers, swinging merrily as they made their way through the mall, whistling a happy tune.

The trip to Target was an interesting one that was for sure, as once more she fell prey to Luffy’s puppy eyes and bought several hundred dollars worth of camping gear and supplies. Somehow he’d talked her into taking him camping sometime in the future, which was absolutely ridiculous as she was supposed to be working on getting him back to the Demon world by fulfilling his Contract.

It was a good thing she’d saved up quite a bit of money over the years, having never actually touched the extremely generous allowance her parents gave her, or the trust fund in the bank that she’d gained access to at age twenty-one, outside of buying her apartment.

While Luffy was somehow talking her into all kinds of ridiculous things she did manage to retain some of her common sense, and bought things they might actually need. For example she’d managed to get lifejackets for both of them, along with some water wings for Luffy, which he adored because they were black with pictures of flames on them and reminded him of his brothers Ace and Sabo. 

In her exasperation she’d also managed to find, in the children’s infant, toddler section, a small backpack shaped like a monkey that could be thoroughly strapped on to Luffy, the tail of which was actually a leash. It was meant to help parents keep track of unruly toddlers who wanted to walk on their own, which meant it was perfect for Luffy, the fact that it was a monkey had given her the giggles for a long time, even though Luffy pouted.

Apparently he didn’t like monkeys very much because his grandpa Garp had made him fight them all the time when he was little. Once more she had to question the sanity of this so-called grandfather figure. The more she heard of him, the less she liked him, maybe they did things differently in the Demon world, but some of the things she heard about Garp sounded like abuse at worst and neglect at least.

She decided then and there that if she ever met this Garp, which she highly doubted, she and him would be having words! She felt very protective of Luffy, something about his sweet, almost naïve air provoked maternal protective instincts she hadn’t even known she had.

After they checked out from Target she realized there was no way they were going to be able to take the bus home with all their purchases in hand. Resigned she’d called a cab, and Luffy had been even more excited than before, practically bouncing as the bright yellow vehicle pulled to a stop in front of them.

It took her several minutes to get him to stop admiring the color and coax him into the back seat with her after loading up the trunk, and several more after that to convince him to buckle up. All the while the cab driver had an extremely bored look on his face, the kind that led her to believe he’d seen a lot worse in his day.

By the end of the ride, she was at least gratified to learn that she wasn’t the only one susceptible to Luffy’s silver tongue. Apparently Luffy had learned all sorts of interesting things from the TV today including that cab drivers should drive like madmen, despite this being a suburb in California as opposed to the bustling streets of Chicago or NYC.

The cab driver had taken Luffy’s goading and pleading, and turned what should’ve been a normal drive to the taxi drive from hell. They were suddenly going twenty over the speed limit dodging through the streets and other vehicles, honking at everyone and everything, with Luffy laughing happily in the back seat and the cab driver spewing curses that had her face would’ve been redder than a tomato if not for the fact that she was holding on to Luffy and the door for dear life.

They arrived back at her apartment in record time and she exited the cab on shaky legs, with Luffy whooping about doing it again. She’d firmly discouraged that thought, and instead went to pay the driver, only to have him laugh her off, tell her it was the most fun he’d had in ages, and if they ever needed another ride to just give him a call, handing them both his card.

Luffy had cheerfully promised they would, waving as the cab left again going its much more sedate speed as it pulled away around the corner.

“That was awesome!” Luffy told her, even as he helped her to haul the bags inside, “It was almost as fun as sailing up Reverse Mountain!”

“I don’t even want to know,” she informed him weakly, as they struggled into the apartment with all their shopping in hand, with Luffy carrying most of it.

“It will be even more fun to do it again in the Mugiwara Mobile tomorrow,” Luffy informed her brightly.

“I am not going to be driving like that in the Mugiwara Mobile,” she stated flatly, determined to nip this idea in the bud before he got even the slimmest of chances to attempt to talk her into it.

“But why?” Luffy demanded with a whine, staring at her with such disappointment that it was hard to keep from caving even as she desperately searched for an excuse he would accept.

“Because,” she said finally, “If I try to drive the Mugiwara Mobile like that tomorrow it could get hurt. It could get wrecked or scratched and you said to take care of it like it was a treasure. That cab driver’s taxi wasn’t a treasure the way the Mugiwara Mobile is so he could use it recklessly”

“Oh, I see,” Luffy told her nodding firmly, “That’s okay then.”

She nearly slumped in relief at his easy acceptance and decided to change the subject, “So is there anything in particular you want for dinner?”

She figured after watching TV all day he might have actually picked up something like that, since that’s where he’d gotten his mad cab driver ideas, and she wasn’t wrong.

“Pizza!” Luffy exclaimed immediately, actual stars appearing to shine in his eyes for a moment, though she quickly shook it off as a trick of the light. Still pizza didn’t actually sound too bad right then.

“What kind of pizza Luffy?” she asked with an amused smile.

“There’s more than one kind?” he asked eagerly.

She nodded and went to get her laptop, showing him the menu from the nearest Pizza Hut. She’d almost thought that Luffy was pretty much guaranteed to order the Meat Lovers pizza, but once again he surprised her by being unable to make up his mind. In the end they ordered something like ten large pizzas so Luffy could try some of everything.

Luffy was thrilled to say the least, though not so thrilled when he realized the pizza would not magically appear out of her laptop and that they’d have to wait for it to be delivered.

She distracted him from his sulking by having him help her put away some of the things they’d bought, and beginning the packing for their beach trip tomorrow. Fortunately they had plenty of picnic food that she could pack, and one of the purchases she’d made at Target was a cooler that she could put locks on. It was one of her more sensible purchases, considering she had to fight Luffy pretty much constantly to keep him from munching as they packed and prepped. The wooden spoon made another appearance as she smacked his wandering hands away from the edibles.

They managed to get most of it done before the doorbell rang. She was forced to full body tackle Luffy to the floor to keep him from running over to answer it, reminding him that only she was allowed to answer the door. He’d whined and pouted, but eventually gave in as she said it was likely their pizza and he wouldn’t get any if she couldn’t answer the door.

The pizza person was extremely bemused to be handing over ten large pizzas, luckily she had an excuse ready, friends coming over for a party in the next twenty minutes or so. He’d accepted that easily enough, allowed her to sign for it and went on his merry way.

She nearly dropped the pizzas when she found Luffy standing behind her, so close he was nearly on top of her, practically drooling as the smell of pizza reached his nose.

“It smells so good,” he murmured almost sounding as if he was hypnotized.

“Alright, well go grab a couple of paper plates and some of that soda in the fridge and we’ll get you set up in front of the TV,” she told him amused.

He ran to the kitchen so fast he actually blurred, and was back not even thirty seconds later with plates and sodas in hand. Of course the sodas were non-caffeinated. Nothing she’d bought from the grocery store had any sort of caffeine in it outside some of the chocolate. She’d known even then that mixing Caffeine and Luffy was a terrible idea.

Settling on a show he liked was fairly easy, so long as it had some kind of adventure in it, Luffy was more than happy, which mostly meant kids cartoons or movies. Once he was set, and she grabbed a few slices of pizza for herself, she went over to the kitchen and sat down.

Her bag was where she left it, and she immediately pulled the things out that she’d need to get done before Wednesday, rummaging around until she had everything spread out on the table that she might need.

“What are you doing?” Luffy asked curiously.

She nearly jumped out of her skin. As enamored as Luffy was by both pizza and the TV she hadn’t expected him to notice her absence at all, let alone abandon both aforementioned items to track her down.

“Homework,” she told him with an unhappy twist of her lips.

“But why? Aren’t we going to hang out?” he questioned pitifully, “We’ve barely hung out all day.”

“I need to get this done before class on Wednesday,” she explained firmly, refusing to give in to any sense of guilt, “And since we’re going on our adventure tomorrow I can’t do it then.”

“It doesn’t look very fun,” Luffy told her dubiously eyeing her neat set up.

“It’s not,” she agreed with a grimace, “But it’s what I have to do for school so I don’t have a choice.”

“For your dream?” Luffy asked confused.

“That’s right,” she answered with a tired smile, hoping he’d drop it now, as he had in the past.

“I don’t think any part of your dream should make you unhappy,” Luffy told her after a moment a frown on his normally cheerful face.

“It’s not that it makes me unhappy,” she defended after taking several long seconds to digest the wise words, “It’s just that sometimes you have to work for things, do things that aren’t fun or exciting to get to where you want to go, for me that’s going to class and doing homework.”

“So it’s worth it because when you reach your dream you’ll be really happy in the end?” Luffy clarified frowning in concentration.

“That’s right,” she confirmed with a grin, unable to not smile at him, Luffy was too adorable to not smile at.

“Oh, okay, but you still have to have fun too okay?” he told her seriously.

“Okay,” she agreed with a laugh.

“Promise?” he asked earnestly, holding out his pinky finger in a gesture that she had no doubt he had also some how picked up from the TV.

“Promise,” she confirmed hooking her pinky with his and shaking on it.

With that Luffy happily went back to watching television, eagerly taking in the shows and the different types of pizza, happy as a pig in mud.

She on the other hand took quite a while to get back to her homework, and even when she did it was slow going. She couldn’t help thinking about what Luffy had said, about her dream and happiness. It had really resonated and she found herself questioning her actions, wondering what exactly it was she was doing with her life.

She was still questioning even as the two of them got ready for bed, listening to Luffy with half an ear as he babbled on about how fun their beach adventure was going to be. It took her a long time to fall asleep that night, and her sleep was a restless one as she dreamed troubled dreams, asking herself one important question over and over. Was her dream really making her unhappy?

…~oO*Oo~…

For the second time in her life she woke to Luffy’s chibi face looming over her, and it was no less shocking or terrifying than the first time, as her still not quite awake brain decided to lurch away and off the bed, which is how she ended up falling out of it for the second day in a row.

“Ouch! Luffy you’ve got to stop doing that,” she told him standing and rubbing her sore behind.

“Doing what?” Luffy asked with a curious tilt to his head.

“Waking me up by looming over me,” she informed him with a sigh.

“But it’s morning time and today we’re going on our adventure!” he cheered, so excited that she didn’t have the heart to scold him, “So come on, come on, lets go!”

She grimaced but did as asked, returning him to normal size so both he and she could get dressed and ready for the day, putting on swimsuits under their clothing and heading out for the day. Luffy was practically bouncing as they headed out the door, pre-packed beach bags in hand, and toting the extremely large and still locked cooler behind him to the car.

Loading up was quick and easy, and before she knew it they were on their way. She’d made sure to pack plenty of breakfast snacks in a separate bag the night before, so she and Luffy both munched as they headed out on “The Mugiwara Mobile’s Maiden Voyage.”

Turning the radio on to a station she enjoyed, she quickly found herself more and more awake, and more and more excited. Luffy’s joy was infectious, and he cheered at the music and hummed as best he could while she sang along to some of the songs she knew as they sped down the highway towards the beach.

It was a really nice day out, exceptionally warm for early spring, and the sun was out with not a cloud in the sky. Honestly it was the perfect weather for going to the beach. Even better since it was early spring it wasn’t likely to be crowded at all, the tourists didn’t tend to come for another month or so, and the beach she was thinking of was fairly well off the beaten path, so they’d maybe only see a handful of locals.

Luffy was near to bursting with excitement when they finally arrived, and practically burst out of the car, and ran down towards the water whooping in joy. It was only ten in the morning so she wasn’t surprised they were the only ones there, especially since it was a Tuesday.

“Come on, come on, come on!” Luffy cheered grabbing on to her hands and practically dragging her down the walkway and into the sand.

“Hold on a minute Luffy we need to get the stuff remember?” she told him firmly, reaching for the things still in the car.

Luffy huffed, but quickly helped her grab everything and the two of them made their way down the beach together. The minute they reached a good spot Luffy dumped all their stuff down, and forced her to do the same, grabbing her hand and dragging her down towards the water. He didn’t even give her time to kick off her shoes before they were at the edge of the ocean, staring out over it.

“It looks kind of like home,” Luffy told her taking a deep breath and then breathing out again, “Smells like it too.”

She never really had understood why people went on and on about the scent of the ocean. Maybe she’d never been to the right place, but frankly it had always smelled like salt and dead fish to her. However seeing Luffy’s face right now made her think there might just be more to it.

“So is anything different from home?” she asked curiously.

“The water’s different,” he told her immediately, with a slight frown, “It’s more blue at home.”

She frowned and wondered. From what she’d gathered from her trips out into the world with Luffy, she kind of questioned just how clean that world was compared to this one. After all they didn’t seem to have the technology they did in this world, so did that mean they didn’t have the pollution either?

Probably not, and wasn’t that an interesting thought? Still this beach wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the others she’d seen. She still remembered the disgust she felt, visiting some of the popular tourist attractions with her parents on the ocean over the years, and staring into the unnaturally dyed green/brown water, with bits of garbage and refuse floating in it. This place was practically paradise in comparison to some of those.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Luffy, who’d taken a bounding leap forward, suddenly nearly collapsed into the ocean. Adrenaline gave her strength and she caught him, quickly hauling him backwards on to the safety of dry land.

“Luffy! Are you alright?!” she demanded anxiously.

“I’m fine,” he told her popping to his feet immediately a bright grin on his face, then pouted, “Guess that means I can’t swim here either. Fooey!”

“What do you mean you can’t swim?” she asked resisting the urge to grab on to his shoulders and shake.

“Oh, lots of demons are weak to sea water,” he told her cheerfully, “So a lot of us can’t swim.”

“You’re kidding,” she murmured shocked.

“Nope! I sink like an anchor, I can’t even take long baths without supervision cuz then I’d drown,” he told her with a laugh.

“Luffy! Why wouldn’t you tell me that?” she practically screeched in worry, “You really could’ve drowned or something.”

“How was I supposed to know that I couldn’t swim in your ocean either?” he asked with a pout.

“You could’ve at least warned me that it might be an issue,” she told him heaving a resigned sigh, because the day that Luffy actually thought about something like that beforehand was the day pigs would fly.

“Oops,” Luffy told her with a shrug, “Sorry.”

“So you said lots of demons are weak in water, does that mean not all demons are?” she asked curiously as she tugged him back towards their stuff, relieved that the beach was empty and no one else had been around to see Luffy’s little collapse.

“Yeah, some of us have super special powers like my rubber stuff because some ancestor made a deal with the devil or something,” Luffy told her cheerfully, “Or that’s what dad always said.”

“A deal with the devil?” she repeated weakly, fighting for the first time in what felt like a long time to not let her reasonable mind, which wanted desperately to reject this new information as fiction, take over her promise to keep an open mind.

“Yep, and so now we can’t swim,” he grinned with a shrug, “But it’s cool cuz our powers are super cool and make us strong and stuff.”

“So you didn’t trade him your souls or anything?” she asked hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer, but remembering all the stories she’d heard and read about the Devil over the years.

“Why would we do that?” Luffy asked adorably confused, “We need those, and besides Robin says she’s not sure that he actually exists anyway, she says he might just be an excuse to make reason out of our germic anamialley.”

“You mean genetic anomaly?” she asked after a few moments to puzzle through what the heck he might mean.

“Isn’t that what I said?” he questioned doing the confused puppy head tilt that always made her want to coo about how adorable he was.

“So do you still want to hang out at the beach even though you can’t swim?” she asked concerned, after all a big part of coming to the beach was the water and apparently Luffy couldn’t touch the stuff without becoming like an overcooked noodle.

“Of course! We’re gonna have tons of fun and it’s gonna be super awesome cuz I’m with you,” Luffy told her sincerely.

She sighed, then shook her head giving him a fond grin, “Alright let’s get set up and get some sunscreen on, and then we’ll do whatever you want to do okay?”

Luffy cheered exuberantly, and the two of them set to it with a will.

Once more she was reminded just how fun, irresponsible and reckless Luffy could be, when the first thing he did was try to eat the sunscreen. The look on his face when he’d actually won the fight and managed to get some in his mouth was absolutely priceless, and she was just glad she had a camera on her phone to capture the moment. 

It was something she’d been doing more and more often, snapping pictures of her and Luffy together, knowing someday soon he would be leaving and wanting to have a memento since they’d likely not see each other ever again once he was gone.

Luffy really liked it too, insisting on taking several pictures himself because he wanted to be able to show his Conclave all the ‘really cool human stuff’ he’d seen. To that end she’d gotten him a cheap, waterproof, shockproof kids camera from Target, congratulating herself on keeping him away from her phone.

She took several more pictures of Luffy’s pouting face as he pondered the betrayal that while the suntan lotion had smelled like pineapples and coconut it hadn’t actually tasted that way.

He bounced back really quickly though and before she knew it they were creating a monstrous sandcastle, which Luffy was surprisingly good at. As they built he told her all about his friends Ussop and Franky who were both very handy and good at making things like this.

She was pretty impressed by what they’d cobbled together though. It was after all, taller than her head, with some pretty impressive arches and details, along with a very striking moat that Luffy had insisted was necessary because ‘castles always have moats.’

She got her phone out just in time to take a few pictures before Luffy rampaged through it Godzilla style. She got good pictures of that too, and then had to try to explain to Luffy who Godzilla was, in the end deciding they could just watch the movie together some time.

After sandcastle time it was time to get something to eat. She refused to let him in the cooler and instead distributed the food he could eat before locking it back up securely. Luffy had complained she was just like Sanji, because their blonde incubi chef apparently did the same thing and would kick Luffy if he got into the food without permission.

Apparently Sanji wasn’t the only one who regularly felt the need to give Luffy a firm smack to discourage his behavior. Their weather Demon Nami, apparently also felt the need to sometimes attempt to control Luffy’s stupidity, from what Luffy said she was always hitting him around the head for damaging the ship or going off on his own or reckless things.

He also said she would’ve loved to see the weather here, as the entire world’s weather here was very different from what they experienced in his world. He didn’t actually understand how such things worked, but apparently their world had some crazy weather if Luffy wasn’t exaggerating.

She’d be a bit worried about his Conclave members being abusive, since the two smacked him enough for him to comment, but she knew it likely wasn’t true. blunt force did absolutely nothing to Luffy, and hadn’t she taken to smacking his hand with a wooden spoon to keep him away from the food?

After lunch the two of them went to look at the tide pools, Luffy oohing and awing over every little creature. She was able to name most of them for him, and even plunged her hands into the cold water several times for him so he could hold some of the more interesting things.

He praised her, telling her she was just like Robin who just knew so much stuff and how that was so cool. She’d been flattered by his praise, but assured him she didn’t actually know as much as he thought she did, not that, that deterred him any.

They even ran across one rather large crab in the tide pools and Luffy had wondered aloud if Chopper would’ve been able to talk to it. Apparently Chopper could talk to animals of all kinds, except for Seakings.

When she’d asked about what Seakings were she had, had to give herself another reminder to be open minded, because giant sea monsters that could look like pretty much any combination of land and sea animals had been more than a little strange. Part of her though, the part that still loved fantasy adventures and fairytales and myths and legends, wondered if the Kraken and the Loch Ness Monster might not have been Seakings that somehow got lost in the human world.

After looking at the tide pools the two of them had gone back to their stuff, and she plugged her portable speaker in so they could listen to music while they played with the beach ball she’d brought along.

Luffy was very careful as they played not to hit the ball too hard or move too fast as he played with her, surprisingly considerate, and she knew he remembered his promise to be careful with her because she was human and felt extremely touched, knowing it had to be hard for him.

While they were playing all sorts of music came on, and he’d tell her that Brook would like it, the variety of music they had here, and the easy way to listen to it. Both things were pretty cool.

They’d been avoiding the water all day, but Luffy wanted to go in. She’d tried to hold her ground and point out he couldn’t swim, but he had looked her in the eye and told her he trusted her. She couldn’t say no after that.

However she had strapped him on to the inner tube they’d brought with for fun and strapped a rope from her to him too, just in case. Luffy had been eager and told her all about Zoro, his right hand, who would do this kind of thing for him too. It was obvious Luffy felt a lot of respect and adoration for his first mate, so she felt very flattered by the comparison.

They both had a good time in the water, with no major mishaps, and went back to land to eat again. When they finished they ran around some more, just enjoying the last of the day and watched the sun set over the ocean.

By the end of it she was exhausted and surprisingly so was Luffy. He whined a bit when she made him help her pack up to go, but eventually acquiesced. It was quiet on the car ride back, but it was a comfortable silence with the music playing in the background.

“That was a lot of fun,” Luffy told her with a bright grin from the passenger side.

“It was,” she agreed with a smile, “It was an awesome day.”

“The perfect Maiden Voyage for the Mugiwara Mobile,” he said proudly, “We should do it again sometime.”

For a moment she thought about how this should be it, how she should be sending him home now that they’d had their adventure. How having him around was an exercise in patience, but also the most fun she had ever had, and all she could say in reply was, “Yeah we should.”

His sunny smile let her know, it was the right thing to say as they settled in for the rest of the drive home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for this update to come out! Life kind of got in the way and between work and running around like a headless chicken trying to get myself a new car I didn't have the time or energy to write. To make it up to you I'm thinking if I have time next week I'll post some previews on other things I'm working on! We'll just have to see!


	5. Chapter 5

Wednesday dawned bright and clear and she was more than happy to leave Luffy on his own as she headed out for school. After all he’d behaved himself really well on Monday so that day shouldn’t have been any different. Later she would curse herself for such naïve thinking.

…~oO*Oo~…

Luffy pouted unhappily as he watched his friend walk away to school again. He didn’t like that she had to leave all the time, but he supposed if it was for her dream then it was okay. Still he got lonely when she wasn’t around to keep him entertained.

She’d left the TV on for him again, but as he scrolled through the channels he couldn’t seem to find anything he liked. He watched a couple of things he thought his nakama might like though, some weather stuff, some fighting stuff, a cooking show, that kind of thing, but it didn’t help his loneliness or his boredom, in fact it only made it worse.

He missed his nakama a lot when his new friend wasn’t around. He kind of wished they’d come with him when he answered the summons but they’d all been busy doing other stuff, so he figured he’d just go on his own. He hadn’t actually expected it would take him too long to get back, in fact he’d planned to return before they even noticed he was gone or at least in time for dinner. Unfortunately that plan was out the window, no way they hadn’t noticed his absence by now. 

He knew Nami must’ve thrown a fit when she found out he was missing, and Sanji would be lecturing about how he shouldn’t upset Nami. Ussop probably made up wild tales about what had happened to him with Chopper listening in, in horror. Brook probably composed a song about it, and Franky might’ve built something to try to find him. Robin probably had done a lot of research and figured everything out, while Zoro kept everyone calm. They’d probably have been pretty panicked at first. However he knew they would be fine without him for a while with Nami and Zoro to look after them. 

A part of him thought maybe he should try to be getting home to them, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave his new friend. He was worried about her. Despite what she said he didn’t think she was very happy, and he had yet to see or hear her talk about any of her friends despite him telling her all about his.

The rumble of his stomach interrupted his thinking, and he nodded in agreement with his belly, thinking was hard and food was more important. He would just have to hang around to make sure his new friend made some friends of her own before going home.

Decided he bounded toward the kitchen eager to find something to sate his growling stomach. Glancing around the freezer his eyes found the stack of premade dinners that his friend had shown him how to make. Eagerly he grabbed them out, and hurriedly grabbed a knife from the block taking the biggest one since it was obviously the best, and setting down his dinner next to the mystery box that would magically heat his food up again. His friend had called it a macaroniave, or was that a micronave? Either way it would make him delicious food if he put the frozen thing in it and pressed the right buttons.

He ended up skewering through several of the frozen dinners that he’d stacked neatly on the counter, impaling it rather than making the small cuts in the plastic tops she’d shown him when she demonstrated how to do this, but he figured it was probably fine. It would still be vennable, or ventable or, well it hopefully wouldn’t explode anyway, though if it did, that would be pretty cool. Plus this way he was making a whole bunch at once instead of one at a time like she did. Eagerly he placed the tray with the knife into the microwave and set the time, proud of himself for remembering

He watched the food eagerly, and was shocked to see bright white lights dancing around the knife as the microwave turned his food around in circles. It hadn’t done that when she’d made the food, but it was pretty awesome, like little miniature fireworks. He wondered why his friend hadn’t shown him how cool this mystery box was. Or at least it was cool until suddenly his food was on fire.

He yelped in surprise and shock, and hurriedly reached to open the door to the mystery box, only to have it spit fire at him in retaliation, forcing him to slam the door shut again. He hadn’t known the mystery box would fight him for his food but he had a lot of experience fighting to eat his fair share, he’d fought off tigers and his brothers before in his determination not to let his precious food be taken away. He wasn’t about to be beat by some stupid mystery box!

A loud ringing noise filled his ears and he yelped in surprise, covering them with his hands and glancing all around for the source. A strange circle thing on the ceiling was making really loud noises and distracting him from saving his food. Thinking was hard enough without the loud beeping to distract him.

He glanced hurriedly around the kitchen wondering what it was and how he could make it stop. It almost sounded like the alarm clock the girls kept in their room on the Sunny. That in mind he realized all he had to do to stop it was whack it just like Nami did. Unfortunately the loud beeping alarm clock was on the ceiling which was a pretty stupid place for it if you asked him.

He was distracted from his thoughts as he realized that another alarm clock in the living room was going off now too! It was spreading! Why hadn’t his friend told him how to hit them to turn them off before she left? 

Frantically he searched around for something to whack it with, only to realize he was made of rubber and could stretch to reach it. However that would mean he’d have to take his hands off his ears. He grimaced unhappily but set to it, unfortunately he might’ve punched the alarm clock a little too hard. It shattered into pieces and left a hole in the ceiling but in his defense it was hurting his ears.

Quickly he ran over to the one in the living room and repeated the gesture, and while the alarm clock in there broke too, at least the ceiling was okay. With that done all he needed to do was rescue his lunch from the mystery box which had black smoke coming out of it.

Unfortunately he had no idea how to combat the fire breathing mystery box. He’d need to somehow put out the fire that he did know and he glanced frantically around the kitchen until his eyes found the sink. A light bulb went on and he raced for it and turned on the water, intending to use the sprayer to hose down the fire, only to find himself stopped short of the microwave. 

Apparently the sprayer didn’t reach that far. Still he wasn’t about to give up! He decided to use Plan B. Hurriedly he placed his face under the faucet and began to gulp down the water until he couldn’t hold anymore. Then he waddled over to the microwave, braced himself, and opened the door, while simultaneously spitting out the water with as much force as he could muster.

Luckily that did the trick and he cheered in victory, eagerly retrieving his lunch from the mystery box. Unfortunately it didn’t look anything like the yummy food she had managed to make before, and he didn’t know why. Maybe the mystery box didn’t like him? Angrily he stuck his tongue out at the strange thing before resigning himself to his food. Sanji would never forgive him if he wasted it, and he’d eaten worse over the years.

When he finished he decided he should probably wash the knife off, to see if it would fix it. He was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be black, and he didn’t want his friend to be upset if the knife was ruined. He didn’t think she would kick him like Sanji did, but she might hit him with the wooden spoon. He pouted at the thought, and set to work attempting to wash the black off.

Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be working, and so he scrubbed, harder, and harder, and harder, and unfortunately slipped. He yelped in surprise and pain as the knife sliced through his palm. He pouted unhappily as blood welled to the surface. The knife was going to have to wait, he would have to try to fix this before blood got everywhere, but first he had to find the bandages.

Unluckily there didn’t seem to be any in the kitchen, not in any of the cabinets or anywhere. He’d even checked the fridge, and braved the fire spewing Mystery Box. He knew there wasn’t a doctor’s office in her apartment like there was on the Sunny so where would she be keeping her bandages?

Thinking about where she might have them was starting to hurt, and he briefly wished Makino was around to explain things. Of all the women he’d met Makino had always been the best at helping him understand. Makino had helped him a lot when he was little and had actually been the one to bandage all his booboos until his Gramps dumped him with Dadan, and Ace and Sabo.

Luckily remembering Makino reminded him of another place to check. The green haired bartender had kept all her bandages in the bathroom, and so that’s where he would go. It took him a while, mostly because his friend had some strange looking bandages, but eventually he found one, and managed to tape it to his hand. He beamed, proud of himself for figuring it out.

Deciding to explore a bit he found several cool looking stickers, with all sorts of fun colors, though they were all the same shape. Still they were cool and he didn’t think his friend would mind if he played with them for a bit, eagerly placing them all over his clothes and body, along with decorating the bathroom. He thought it could use a little more color, being a kind of boring shade of grey.

Unfortunately the stickers didn’t keep him interested for long, and so he turned toward the tub. His friend had shown him how to use it after they’d gotten home from the beach. It had been a lot of fun, even if it wasn’t quite as nice as the tub on the Sunny it was still enjoyable.

He’d especially enjoyed the bubbles that she’d put in for him even if they didn’t taste as good as they smelled. He really didn’t understand why all this stuff in this world smelled like food if it wasn’t edible. Humans were very strange creatures.

His friend was especially strange. She’d turned really red when he’d asked her to join him in the bath, and wouldn’t do it. It made him sad, but she had refused to get in, sputtering and lecturing him, reminding him that she was a girl and did he bathe with the girls back home?

He didn’t. Nami wouldn’t let him, though he didn’t understand why. He simply agreed because Nami was a scary lady when she wanted to be. He’d hoped that the rules would be different here, but apparently not.

Luckily she’d agreed to stay with him so he could play and not worry about drowning because of his weakness to water, though he’d had to com-pre-mise again, and stay in his swimsuit. It had still been nice, and he briefly considered having a bath and playing with the bubbles again, only to decide that he probably shouldn’t since he’d promised her he wouldn’t take baths without her there to watch.

However that didn’t mean he couldn’t still play in the tub right? It just meant he couldn’t get in by himself! Pleased with that thought he immediately turned on the taps the way she’d shown him last night, and plugged the drain. Rummaging around he couldn’t find the bubble stuff she’d used last night, but there was another similar bottle that smelled kind of like the bubbles that would probably work. 

Decided he immediately squirted some of it into the tub like she had. When nothing happened he squeezed some more, and then just a little bit more just to be safe. He beamed at the bubbles that were beginning to form, proud of himself for figuring it out.

However this wouldn’t be fun without some things to play with. Luckily there were some cups, along with some bright plastic things that looked a bit like his friend Tarao’s submarine that he thought would be fun. In his distraction the tub overflowed a bit, but luckily he caught it before too many bubbles could escape.

Tossing the fun things he found into the tub he immediately began a game of adventure, introducing his fun submarines to all the members of his Conclave and making up stories about them.

To differentiate he made himself the small yellow duck he’d found in the cabinets, and he led his friends around the tub, laughing happily, as they tried to escape the great bubble menace. However it didn’t seem as fun when he wasn’t actually in the tub, and the bubbles ran out quickly

He was just wondering what to do with himself when he heard the doorbell ring. He perked up eagerly, hoping it was his friend, until he remembered that his friend would just walk in, so who exactly was at the door? Completely forgetting the rules she’d laid down the first day about not answering the door he went to see who it was.

…~oO*Oo~…

Todd liked to think he was a good mailman, not a great one, the kind that would trudge ‘through wind and snow and pouring rain’ without complaint or anything, but good. Good enough to not leave packages sitting out on the front doorstep where they might get lost, stolen, or damaged by the weather.

Which was why he’d chosen to ring the bell on the apartment to see if anyone was home, so he could deliver his package. If they weren’t, well he’d leave a note and they could come pick it up at the post office. It wasn’t like it was far away after all, just a couple blocks from here, an easy walk.

He whistled cheerfully to himself as he waited the requisite couple of minutes to give someone time to answer the door. It was a good day, he was actually almost finished with his route and would be able to go home soon, maybe after having a nice drink with the guys and flirting with that cute waitress at the deli close to his house.

At the corner of his eye he thought he saw movement, and so turned to look, only to see the curtain swing back into place indicating someone had been peering at him through the window. That was fine, he knew some people didn’t like answering the door, especially without having a looksee first. 

He certainly never did, after all it could be that annoying internet salesman on the doorstep, the one who was so sure the service he was offering was better than the one he had. Todd had played that game before and he certainly wasn’t interested, not in them, not in the church people who came trying to convert him, and certainly not to his old hag of a neighbor Bertha who liked to complain at him about how his grass was a tenth of an inch too long in places. Yes, the only people Todd opened his door for were his fellow mailmen because they had solidarity, sometimes the FedEx guys if he was feeling generous, and girl scouts, because he had a not so secret Thin Mint addiction.

Thus he was more than okay with someone not answering the door despite having seen him. He was in fact getting ready to leave the requisite note on the door, letting the inhabitant know to pick up their package at the office when the door swung open.

Having been in the business of delivering mail for over fifteen years Todd liked to think he had seen a whole lot of crazy things, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He was pretty sure the kid was a teenager, he had a kind of youthful face, with a scar under one eye, and a bright grin on his face.

However it was kind of hard to focus on that, when there were neon band-aids plastered all over the kid from head to toe, in some strange psychedelic swirl pattern that was dizzying to look at for too long.

“Who are you?” the kid asked bluntly, knocking Todd out of what he was sure was blatant staring.

“Um Todd, I’m Todd the mailman?” he introduced confused. People didn’t normally bother to ask his name, recognizing the uniform and reading the nametag embroidered proudly on the right breast pocket.

“Nice to meet you Todd the Mailman, my name’s Luffy,” the kid told him with an infectious smile, “Monkey D. Luffy!”

Todd would’ve thought the kid was mocking him if not for the bright sincere smile, and the open and completely honest face. Deciding to roll with it he offered the clipboard in his hands, “I’ve got a delivery. I was just dropping it off.”

“A delivery?” the kid asked obviously confused.

“A package,” Todd confirmed with a nod producing the small brown wrapped parcel from his bag and offering it to the kid, who accepted it with eager hands.

“Ooh! What’s in it?” he questioned excitedly, turning the parcel over and over, then shaking it to see if it rattled.

“I wouldn’t know,” Todd informed the kid, wondering if he was trying to question his integrity as a mail deliveryman. 

“Is it treasure?” the kid asked eagerly, turning it around in his hands.

“I don’t think so,” Todd told him eyeing the kid and wondering if he was all there mentally. He was definitely starting to lean towards no, “Probably a gift of some kind though.”

“Ooh! A present! For me?” the kid asked excitedly, and he looked so eager that Todd felt kind of bad bursting his bubble, but he didn’t want the innocent kid to get in trouble for opening someone else’s package either.

“Maybe, you the one that lives here?” he prompted.

“Nah, it’s my friend’s house, but she’s at school right now,” the kid told him with a sad frown.

“Then it’s probably for her, you should give it to her when she comes home,” Todd instructed carefully. Normally he might be worried about giving a non-recipient a package, but the kid seemed harmless enough, if a bit dim.

“Okay! I’ll protect her treasure for her until she gets back,” the kid promised grinning widely.

“You do that kid,” Todd told him with a polite nod, and turned to leave.

“Bye Todd the Mailman have a nice day,” Luffy shouted after him waving his hand at him.

Todd waved back over his shoulder, Luffy seemed like a good kid, he was polite at least. He got another five steps away from the apartment before his mind processed what he’d seen on the kid’s hand when Luffy had waved. He paused and turned back, but the kid had already gone back inside and shut the door behind him.

He decided he might need to skip the drink he had been planning on and maybe go for water instead. After all alcohol wouldn’t be good if he was seeing things. Luffy may not be the brightest bulb in the box but he was sure there was no way the kid would’ve strapped a women’s sanitary napkin to his hand, that was just downright strange.

…~oO*Oo~…

The visit from Todd the Mailman had been fun, and Luffy had spent a good ten minutes examining the box that he’d brought for his friend trying to figure out what was inside before finally giving up on it. He wondered if Todd the Mailman was like a News Coo from his world, seeing as he delivered things, he hadn’t looked like a News Coo, but then humans were strange so there was a possibility.

Either way now that he was gone Luffy was bored again. Wandering around the apartment he finally spotted something to entertain himself with. It was the RC helicopter he’d gotten from the mall. Eagerly he dug it out of the packaging only to discover it wouldn’t work like the one at the mall had.

Luckily thanks to his experience working with Franky and Ussop on some of their super cool inventions he finally figured out how to get the batteries in, though it took him several tries. Pleased with himself he quickly began attempting to fly the copter. The guy at the mall had made it look really easy, but Luffy quickly discovered it was nowhere near as easy as it looked.

Still he laughed happily as he chased the copter around the apartment, unmindful of the things he or it knocked into during the chase. Only stopping when the front door opened and his friend called, “Luffy? I’m home!”

…~oO*Oo~…

She gazed numbly around her apartment, taking in the damage Luffy had managed to do during the time she’d been gone. There was water all over the floor of her kitchen and the shattered remnants of two smoke detectors. The whole place smelled like burned plastic.

Several things were broken, including her coffee table, and chairs were overturned. There were a couple of holes in the drywall where Luffy had apparently crashed the RC helicopter she’d bought him at the mall. The bathroom was torn apart and had Band-Aids stuck to every surface.

Luffy himself was covered in the neon ones she’d bought on a whim, and had one of her monthly pads taped to his hand, which was stained red with blood. The rest of her feminine care products were strewn around the bathroom floor, and soaked in water. When she asked him about it, Luffy admitted to using her tampons as bath toys, and she wasn’t sure whether to die of embarrassment or strangle the idiot.

Either way cleanup was not going to be fun or easy. She was frustrated beyond reason with Luffy, and had even shouted at him for a bit venting her feelings. Class had been beyond boring today, and she’d really had to struggle to stay focused. It was probably a good thing she didn’t know what Luffy had gotten up to, or her notes would’ve been even worse than they already were.

The day hadn’t been easy, and she’d been looking forward to coming home and hanging out and relaxing with Luffy. That plan was down the drain now, they’d be spending all night trying to get the place clean again.

At the end of her rant she informed him that from now on whenever she was gone from the apartment he would be staying in chibi form to hopefully minimize the amount of trouble he could get into. She expected Luffy to say something in his defense or to protest being chibi-fied, but all he’d had to say was that he was sorry and he missed her, accepting his punishment with surprising grace. In the face of his total sincerity she couldn’t stay angry too long, but she was feeling extremely wrung out as she moved to begin cleaning.

Luffy worked beside her the entire time, doing everything he was told and being surprisingly quiet. He didn’t even complain when the dinner hour came and went without stopping to eat. When they finally finished cleaning she tiredly whipped out some sandwiches and plopped on to the couch.

She was surprised to have Luffy come sit down next to her, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She sighed into his hair and hugged back to let him know all was forgiven, as she flicked on the TV and settled in to relax for a while hoping tomorrow would be better.

…~oO*Oo~…

Unfortunately the adventure they were supposed to have on Thursday had to be postponed because she needed to do her homework, having not had any time to do it the night before because Luffy’s mess had to be cleaned up. That more than anything seemed to make Luffy realize he’d have to behave a little better from now on.

Luckily he was on his best behavior as she worked so it didn’t take her too long to finish, and get a bit of a head start on the longer term projects just in case. She managed to be finished by midafternoon, and figured Luffy deserved to do something fun since he was so well behaved while she was working.

There was a playground nearby, and since Luffy had never been before he was more than eager to go. She was surprised to hear the demon world didn’t have anything like public playgrounds or anything close to it where different children could play together.

In fact Luffy told her he hadn’t even met another child until Garp took him to Makino. Apparently demon children weren’t born very often, partially because it was hard for a demon to get pregnant in the first place, and partially because they had extremely long gestation periods to match their extremely long lifespans. She’d been shocked to learn that it took something like two years for a demon baby to be born from conception to birth.

It certainly explained a lot though. She certainly wouldn’t want to be pregnant for two whole years, nine months sounded bad enough, she couldn’t imagine longer than that.

This meant that demon children were not only rare but extremely well protected, though Luffy and his two brothers seemed to be the exception to that rule. From what she could gather after Shanks came and Garp dumped him off with his brothers the three of them had pretty much run wild with little to no adult supervision.

However it turns out the brothers were pretty creative despite having no playgrounds because they had all sorts of games they’d made up to play together over the years. Luffy tried to explain them to her, trying to convince her to play them with him at the playground, but he wasn’t very good at explaining all the rules, and some of them were a bit violent for her to safely play.

Instead she taught him some of the games she had known growing up, and showed him how to use all the equipment. The park was empty except for the two of them and Luffy had an absolute blast playing with the jungle gym, and the slides, though it was probably a good thing no one else was there as he had a few incidences where he couldn’t quite keep his rubber powers in check. 

The merry-go-round in particular had probably been a bad idea, as Luffy had urged her to go faster, and faster, and faster until he was laughing so hard he couldn’t hold on anymore and had gone flying off of it. Of course he wasn’t hurt at all, and had immediately wanted to go again, but she decided that was probably a bad idea in case someone else actually did come to the park. After all normal people don’t bound off the nearby slide he’d collided with like bouncy balls.

He’d really wanted to try the basketball hoops and funnel ball game, but she hadn’t brought the ball, though she did promise at his pout that next time she would show him how to play. He’d agreed eagerly then run off to the seesaw.

She’d made him make several promises before agreeing to go on the death trap thing with him, as she had no interest in going flying any time soon. He’d kept most of them, and enjoyed the up and down of the particularly large seesaw, though it didn’t keep him occupied for long before something else caught his eye. She just wished she’d made him promise to let her off first, because her butt was definitely going to be hurting tomorrow from his abrupt departure from the other end of the toy.

The swings had been a hit after Luffy had figured out how to use them, and he’d eagerly spent quite a bit of time trying to go high enough to go up and over the bar, despite her telling him several times that it just wasn’t possible. In the end he settled for getting as high as he could and then jumping off of it into the sand several times in a row, laughing happily all the while.

To her surprise his favorite piece of equipment turned out to be the tire swing. He made her push him and spin him on that thing for at least half an hour and was only persuaded to get off because both of them were getting hungry. On the way home he’d babbled eagerly about how he was going to have Franky make a tire swing for their ship the Thousand Sunny and how much fun he and Ussop and Chopper could have on it.

She’d listened indulgently, glad she’d been able to give him something like this to make up for what sounded like a pretty crappy childhood, despite having his two brothers. 

As they ate that night she warned him that she was going to be gone for longer than usual tomorrow, which he pouted at, but in the end accepted because he would get her to himself for two whole days after that. He’d promised again to behave himself, and she had no choice but to accept that and hope for the best as they settled in for the night, with him chibi-fied as usual cuddled up and drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

…~oO*Oo~…

Ace tapped his fingers anxiously on the bar top as he waited for Sabo to finish his conversation with his contact, hoping against hope that he actually had some relevant information.

It had been nearly a week since their little brother Luffy had gone missing, three days since he’d gotten the call from his Conclave telling him his baby brother had up and vanished into thin air, not even returning in time for dinner. He was frantic to say the least.

He and Sabo had immediately made plans together to meet up with Luffy’s Conclave to get the whole story, but apparently there wasn’t a whole lot to tell. He had apparently been there one minute and gone the next. While it wasn’t unlike Luffy to get distracted or wander off to have adventures, it wasn’t like him to not tell anyone he was going, having had it beaten into his head over the years that someone would be worried.

In the end, having explored every nearby island and every nook and cranny of the Sunny, they had decided that the only thing that could have happened was that Luffy had somehow been summoned to the human world. It seemed impossible, because no demon had been summoned away from this world for almost five hundred years, but the only other option was that Luffy had suffered some kind of fatal accident, it was the only thing that would keep him away from his worried brothers and Conclave for so long, and Ace refused to even consider that option. There was no way his baby brother was dead.

Thus the brothers had split from Luffy’s Conclave, letting them know they’d bring him back one way or another and decided they needed to somehow find a way to the human world, track down their baby brother, and drag him back here after a long, long lecture about idiocy and responsibilities, and if whoever summoned him tried to stop them, well he and Sabo would teach him a lesson they’d never forget, that was for sure.

Catching Sabo’s eye he let out a breath of relief as his blonde brother nodded slowly in confirmation. His contact knew the way to the human world and would show them the way. Now it was just a matter of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry for the wait! I got a little distracted by some other stories! Stories that I will be posting shortly after updating all of these, so if you've got the time and inclination please check them out! :)  
> Also I've made myself a tumblr account under the same name EvenescentTranquility, mostly so I can tumblr stalk some of my favorite authors, but if you've got questions, comments, critiques, suggestions, or just want to be friends, feel free to hit me up over there. If people are interested enough I might even post previews of things over there :).


	6. Chapter 6

To her utter relief Luffy had behaved himself perfectly on Friday, not even complaining about having to be small all day long, and so she’d decided to reward him. He’d seen a lot of different things on the TV by now including different foods, and so she’d allowed him to pick out several things he’d like to try and promised they’d spend the weekend making them, baking, cooking and generally hanging out.

Luffy had been thrilled at the prospect of unlimited food for the weekend and had eagerly agreed, listing off several dozen things he’d seen. It was funny he still couldn’t work the TV properly but he could remember the name of every single food he’d seen in commercials.

In preparation for their “All-You-Can-Eat Weekend” as Luffy was calling it, she’d spent Friday evening doing all her homework, and making another trip to the grocery store. Luckily this one had been much easier than the first as Luffy was a lot more used to humans and knew how to act. Plus with food on the line he was very mission oriented and they’d gotten in and out in under an hour.

She’d known that in order to get even a fraction of the things made that Luffy wanted to try she would need an early start Saturday morning, and had risen early, ready to make a whole bunch of fun breakfast foods for Luffy to try, leaving Luffy asleep in bed to keep him out of her hair while she started.

She was just about done with the pancake batter when the door to her apartment crashed open, revealing a fiery silhouette, that stormed into her living room, a living torrent of flame with mercurial silver eyes that were narrowed in fury as they zoned in on her.

“You! Human! Where the hell is my brother?!”

She gaped in shock, at what had to be a demon, there was no way he could be anything but considering he was literally on fire. She was literally frozen unsure what to do, as steely grey eyes stared her down and a threatening snarl emerged from his lips as he took a step forward.

“Answer me!” he demanded furiously, flames leaping higher, threatening to set her entire apartment on fire.

In response, she grabbed the hose from the sink and started to spray thoroughly hosing him down, her only thought to stop the fire and save her apartment. The demon sputtered in shock, but from the look on his face she was really only succeeding in pissing him off more.

Unfortunately there was only one thing she could think of to do. Luckily she remembered the words well enough.

_“Accipe Deamone, ut parvo. Sicut hoc quod dico…”_ she scrambled desperate to find another word, but in the end gave up defaulting to the same one she’d used on Luffy, “Chibi!”

She watched in shocked awe as the demon slowly began to shrink right before her eyes, a look of awe and horror on his face as he slowly became too small to see over the counter. A few seconds of silence passed, and she slowly edged her way out from behind the counter, clutching the soapy frying pan she’d been washing in one hand.

When she spotted him again he was staring dazedly at his hands, before turning that furious silver gaze back on her again, and flames licked over his arms and torso. Belatedly she remembered that even when shrunken down the Chibi Demons could still use their powers.

He launched himself at her, and she shrieked, swinging the still soaking dishpan with all her might at him. It hit with a loud clang and the chibi fire demon went flying through the air, hitting the wall with a resounding thud and sliding slowly to the floor.

She gaped for long minutes at the slumped figure, before slowly walking toward it, pan raised in defense, but he didn’t move. Carefully she reached out with the pan and gently prodded the downed figure, only for him to slip sideways like a ragdoll.

Immediately she dropped the pan in horror, her hands going to the little demon, trying to figure out if she’d accidentally killed the thing. It may have been attacking her, and it may have been self defense, but she never wanted to hurt anyone, certainly not kill them.

Placing an ear to his chest she was relieved to hear his heart beat, and the whoosh of air moving through his lungs. Relieved she made to move away only to nearly jump out of her skin as a loud rattling noise echoed through the room. What the hell? Was he snoring?

Another loud rattling snore filled the room and she could confirm he was indeed snoring, which left her with the question of had she actually knocked him out, or had he fallen asleep? And what kind of person or demon fell asleep while being attacked?

Unfortunately she had more pressing matters to deal with than pondering the strangeness of demons, like what the hell was she going to do with him. She certainly didn’t want to be attacked again, and if he woke he would surely attack her. She could take him out of her apartment and try to dump him somewhere but doubtless he’d just come charging back when he woke up, which just left the option of restraining him somehow. The question was how the hell to restrain something that apparently created fire at will, obviously rope was not going to cut it.

Searching her memories for Demon weaknesses, hoping she’d read something in the book, her mind instead flashed to the beach trip. She replayed the memory of Luffy going limp the second he touched the water, and had a eureka moment.

Dashing for the bathroom she immediately began to run the water for the tub before running back out to the kitchen. She knew regular water would also make demons too weak if they stayed in it too long, however salt water was really what the issue was. She just had to hope table salt would do the trick.

She dumped the whole can of it under the running faucet to be safe, and turned back to head out to the living room. Luckily the fire demon was either still asleep or still unconscious either way he was out. She carefully scooped him up in her arms, and headed for the bathroom praying he wouldn’t wake mid-transport.

Luck seemed to be with her as she arrived in the bathroom without incident. However now she had a problem, because while she could just plop him in the tub if he got as weak as Luffy did if she walked away for even a second he could drown, something she definitely didn’t want on her conscious even if he had just attacked her.

Fortunately something caught her eye, it was a small inner tube, toddler sized that Luffy had insisted on getting at Target before they’d gone on their beach trip, sitting in the corner of the room with the rest of their beach gear. She’d warned him the inner tube wouldn’t be big enough, but he’d insisted because it had cool flame patterns on it. She’d caved and now she was glad, though she found it extremely ironic that the fire demon would be using the flame pattern inner tube to keep afloat.

Gently she went to move the unconscious demon into the tube and hesitated for a moment. He was passed out, cuddled against her chest, sleeping soundly with one small hand gripping her shirt as he slept. With his freckles and soft, wavy black hair he looked angelic. She had to resist the urge to coo at him, arms tightening around him for a fraction of a second, before her logical brain reminded her he’d attacked her and nearly set her apartment on fire, and would likely do so again if not restrained.

Still that didn’t stop her from being extra cautious as she eased him into the tube, pulling his arms through so he would be balanced and gently set him into the water. It seemed her improvise salt water had worked, because his already limp body went completely slack with weakness.

Breathing a sigh of relief she watched for a few minutes, just to be sure he wouldn’t accidentally slip beneath the water, as she turned the faucet off. Luckily he seemed safe for the moment, so she slipped out of the room, determined to wake Luffy, who had apparently slept through all the ruckus and ask if he knew what the hell was going on.

Pausing in the living room she glanced around and froze in shock as another silhouette appeared in her destroyed doorway. However this time she wasn’t about to wait for the demon to start throwing flames everywhere. She spat out the spell so fast she didn’t even think of changing the command word, and dived for her trusty frying pan.

Coming up she wielded it threateningly at the now chibi sized demon and demanded, “Who are you and what the hell do you want?!”

…~oO*Oo~…

Sabo grimaced in annoyance as he realized that Ace had taken off without him. Yes now that they were close Luffy’s residual energy was easy enough to track, especially as he seemed to be the only demon in the area, but that didn’t mean Ace should go haring off recklessly. Especially since they knew almost nothing about the human world.

He understood Ace’s anxiousness he really did, Luffy was reckless at the best of times, and often a little naïve and forgetful as well. It was bound to make an older brother fret at the best of times, never mind when the little brother was summoned into the human world without anyone there to back him up. 

However they couldn’t afford to go rushing in, not when they knew next to nothing about humans and what exactly they were capable of. Especially since the human who would have Luffy had to be some kind of summoner in order to have pulled Luffy from their world in the first place.

Summoners were a bit of a mystery in their world, partially because one hadn’t been seen in over half a millennia and partially because even when they were around their secrets were closely guarded by the demon Conclaves who were bound to them. Even some of the oldest demons around, who had seen summoners with their own eyes hadn’t actually known much about them.

He’d asked his Conclave leader Dragon, but he’d been pretty much clueless, though he too had been anxious about the whereabouts of his only child, which was the reason he’d given Sabo leave to search for him.

He knew Ace had asked his conclave leader Whitebeard too, but even he hadn’t known much despite being one of the oldest and strongest demons alive. Though he had warned them to be extremely careful about approaching one, as they could be exceptionally dangerous. He’d apparently learned that the hard way in his youth during one of his many clashes with Ace’s birth father Roger, one of the last demons to live that had a contract with a summoner.

Thus he had decided to approach with caution, and he was glad he did because finding himself shrunk down to less than half his size was extremely disconcerting and alarming. Even more alarming was that he couldn’t see Ace anywhere despite seeing the telltale scorch marks of his presence. Which meant this summoner, who looked to be wielding a cast iron skillet at him, had somehow defeated one of the strongest demons in their world in the less than ten minutes it had taken Sabo to follow him here.

His only comfort was that he could sense both Ace and Luffy’s presences nearby, which meant neither of them were dead yet, though considering Ace’s fierce protectiveness of Luffy and all he considered family he was likely very close to it. The problem was Sabo wasn’t entirely sure how to go about defeating this human summoner Ace had lost to.

Admittedly she didn’t look very threatening with her slender figure, messy strawberry blonde hair that was in complete disarray, and wide pale green eyes that were staring at him with something he might’ve thought was panic if he wasn’t sure she’d somehow defeated Ace as she demanded to know who he was and what he wanted.

However he knew by now not to judge books by their covers. He’d made that mistake only once when he was very young, misjudging a small female demon, and he’d paid the price in an ass kicking that still made him wince every time he thought about it. It didn’t help that he wasn’t even up to her waist, barely past her knees in height, right now, and had no idea what other effects this shrinking spell she’d put on him might have had.

Normally he might’ve tried to stall, to figure out more about his adversary and wait for back-up, but he didn’t have that kind of time, and his back-up was somewhere in this building probably unconscious and near death. He was just bracing himself to attack and praying for a miracle, when a familiar voice rang out.

“Hey is breakfast ready yet? I’m hungry,” the voice whined, the sentence ending in a sleepy yawn, “And it’s all-I-can eat weekend right?”

“Luffy!” he exclaimed in relief only to realize she’d said it at the same time, though her voice had been tight with fear and concern, and he realized suddenly that she was shifting her body, trying to move between him and Luffy, her posture completely defensive, skillet raised aggressively.

“What’s going on?” his little brother asked seriously, in a tone Sabo only heard extremely rarely, “Are you hurt! Did someone hurt you? I’ll kick their ass!”

It was then Sabo realized something strange was definitely going on here, because Luffy wasn’t hurt, scared, or even the littlest bit anxious. The only thing he apparently was, was pissed off, and more than ready to defend the human in front of him.

“Luffy it’s me!” he tried slowly raising his hands in a surrendering gesture.

“Who’s calling?” Luffy asked his voice confused, as he peered out from behind the human’s legs. Sabo had to do a double take in surprise. While the demon looking at him was undoubtedly his brother, he was a lot smaller than he remembered, and he realized suddenly that he too must’ve been hit by the shrinking spell as well.

“Who are you?” Luffy demanded bluntly an angry frown on his face as he made his way out from behind the human his arms crossed in front of his chest, “You better not have hurt my friend!”

“It’s me!” he insisted, realizing his little brother probably didn’t recognize him in this form, dense, lovable little brat that he was sometimes, “Sabo!”

“Sabo?” Luffy repeated in surprise before taking another step forward and inspecting his face carefully, apparently he saw enough similarity because he beamed, and Sabo found himself wrapped in a very familiar, very rubbery hug as Luffy cheered, “Sabo! What are you doing here?!”

He was used to this, however what he wasn’t used to was Luffy suddenly pulling away, an anxious look on his face, “Sabo you didn’t hurt my friend did you?”

“No Luffy, he didn’t hurt me,” said friend affirmed having lowered the frying pan slightly, though she was still frowning, “Did you say Sabo? As in your brother Sabo?”

“I did! This is Sabo! He’s one of my brothers!” Luffy introduced ecstatically, “Sabo this is… this is…”

He trailed off a completely stumped look on his face, and Sabo watched as the human woman wilted to the floor apparently shocked, an appalled look on her face as she realized Luffy didn’t know her name. 

“(Name) Luffy, my name is (name)!” she informed him, “How do you not know that?”

“It’s cuz you didn’t tell me!” Luffy told her bluntly with a shrug.

“And you didn’t think to ask?” she questioned baffled.

“Nope!” Luffy replied cheerfully, “Doesn’t matter, you’re my friend I don’t need names to know that.”

Sabo watched as the face he liked to call the “Love Luffy” face flashed across hers. It was a complex mixture of exasperation, frustration, amusement and deep affection that he had yet to see inspired by anyone but Luffy, and it removed the last of his doubts. Luffy was in no danger, and never had been, he was probably just stuck here or had chosen to stick around with his new friend for a bit.

“It seems there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding here,” Sabo began and swept his hat off his head in a formal bow, “My apologies Miss (name) we were under the impression Luffy had been kidnapped and were of the mind to rescue him. I promise no harm is meant, however I have to enquire after our other brother Ace. He should’ve arrived here before me.”

“Ace is here too?!” Luffy asked in eager surprise, practically bouncing, glancing around as if Sabo might be hiding him somewhere, “Where is he?”

“Ace wouldn’t happen to have grey eyes, black hair, freckles and a fiery personality would he?” (name) asked a sheepish expression on her face.

“That’s him,” Sabo confirmed a small smirk on his face at the pun, though he was still worried.

“He’s fine,” she assured him, apparently seeing his concern, “He gave me a scare though, and he burst in here literally in flames and pretty much started attacking, it was self-defense!”

“Anyway he’s in here,” she told Sabo, gesturing for the two of them to follow her into a room down the hallway. Sabo followed, though only because Luffy tagged along without question an eager bounce in his step. 

He was really worried about what condition his brother might be in. Unfortunately he could see the scenario as she described it, Ace was hot headed at the best of times, and had been extremely riled at the thought of any harm befalling their brother. Sabo had no doubts he would’ve tried to attack first ask questions later, and if so she was well within her rights to defend herself. He just hoped she hadn’t done too much damage to his brother.

He was more than a bit shocked when the room she led him to was the bathroom, and he glanced around confused at first because he wasn’t seeing Ace anywhere. That is until a familiar orange hat caught his eye, and when it did he immediately burst into laughter, unable to help himself as he took in what had become of his fierce, temperamental brother. He was never going to let him live this down.

…~oO*Oo~…

Ace groggily fought to open his eyes, he felt weak, why did he feel so weak? Anxiously his thoughts turned to the last thing he remembered, and it all came rushing back, the human, attempting to find Luffy, getting shrunk, shit! His eyes finally opened, and he realized why he felt so weak, water, seawater if the smell was any indication. Apparently he was floating in it.

Unfortunately he was unable to lift his face of the strange plastic thing that seemed to be keeping him afloat to figure out where he was. The sound of laughter reached his ears and he bristled in fury. He was going to make that stupid human woman pay!

However after a moment he realized it was familiar laughter. He blinked in surprise and would’ve jerked if he had the strength to do so, as a surprisingly gentle hand tilted his face back to he could see properly, carefully propping what felt like a sponge beneath his chin so he could keep his head up. 

This elicited another round of hysterical laughter, and he glared at his brothers, or he would have, if he hadn’t been so taken aback. It appeared they too had gotten on the wrong side of the summoner and shrunk down to size. Both of them had apparently clambered up on to the edge of the tub to see him though and were laughing hysterically about his predicament.

However neither one of them were the one who had propped him up to see, that had apparently been the human woman, who was looking at him half apologetic half smug. He frowned, wondering what the hell was going on.

From the looks of things Luffy appeared to be fine, if a little small, and Sabo didn’t look anxious or concerned, apparently relaxed enough with her presence to laugh his ass off. Glancing over to do another visual check of Luffy, his eyes widened in alarm as his idiot brother overbalanced on the edge of the tub and tipped forward.

Luckily a quick hand shot out and snagged the back of the shirt he was wearing before he could fall in, and Ace could do nothing but watch in surprise and slowly growing curiosity as the human woman hauled the little version of Luffy up in front of her face, scowling fiercely.

“Monkey D. Luffy! What did I tell you about being careful around the bathtub?” she asked in the same exasperated, anxious, affectionate voice that Ace recognized if barely, from previous interactions with Makino. 

He was shocked to see Luffy wilt slightly in her grasp, staring up at her with apologetic puppy eyes, “To do it?”

“That’s right, remind me again what the rules are?” she prompted firmly.

“I am not allowed to be near the bath tub without supervision, I am not to touch the water without asking first, I am not allowed to play with anything in the bathroom, and sitting on the edge of the tub without help isn’t okay,” Luffy repeated dutifully to both Ace and Sabo’s shock.

Never in all their years of being around their brother had they managed to beat water safety into his head, despite the fact that he sunk like a rock. Both he and Ace did, with Sabo the only one able to swim with any sort of success. Yet somehow this human woman had managed to get the rules into his head and actually make him repeat them what sounded like verbatim? She had to be some kind of miracle worker!

“And what are the consequences if you break the rules knowingly or unknowingly? She prompted again.

“Half of my share of the meat will be replaced with vegetables,” Luffy dutifully repeated looking thoroughly miserable at the prospect, “But it’s supposed to be all-you-can-eat weekend!”

“It is,” she acknowledged, “And I’ll make an exception, but only this once Luffy, don’t do it again!”

“I promise,” he told her nodding solemnly.

“You sure handle him well,” Sabo told her, saying what Ace was thinking, both of them watching as she pulled Luffy in and braced him on her hip like a toddler, where he proceeded to happily cuddle with her. Luffy had always been a cuddler.

“Thanks,” she replied a light blush on her cheeks, “It’s been a hell of a week trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’m just glad to be dealing with the adult version. I can’t imagine the kind of trouble he got up to as an actual kid.”

Sabo chuckled ruefully, “Yeah, I’m more than a little surprised the three of us survived to adulthood. However, speaking of the three of us, how exactly did you get Ace like that? He’s not exactly easily subdued.”

Ace wanted to know the answer to that too. Had she used some kind of strange spell on him the same way she’d shrunk him? Had she hit him hard enough to actually make him black out?

“I’m not sure,” she admitted with a puzzled frown, “I mean, I shrunk him, and then he lunged at me, so I hit him with this.”

Ace tried not to grimace at the fact that he’d been hit by a frying pan, that was more than a little embarrassing, he just hoped that wasn’t actually what had done him in, or he’d never hear the end of it.

“I hit him pretty hard, and since he was little like this he went flying and hit the wall. I was honestly afraid I’d killed him at first,” she admitted with an anxious frown, “But then I went to check and he was breathing fine, and then all of a sudden he started snoring! I don’t know what happened!”

Sabo took a minute to process this, then turned to Ace, who felt his cheeks flushing against his will, as he realized the cause of his defeat, and Sabo burst out laughing again. He would’ve kicked his brother if he could. Unfortunately he was still submerged and unable to move, so was forced to settle for glaring with all his might at him.

“I don’t understand,” the human said confused, “What’s so funny?”

“I-I-I’m sorry,” Sabo wheezed, “It’s just, Ace is narcoleptic, so sometimes he falls asleep against his will, but I have never, ever heard of it happening during a fight before, the fact that he did just after getting hit in the face with a frying pan?”

Sabo cracked up again and Luffy was sniggering along with him.

“Wait narcoleptic? Really?” she asked surprised.

“Ace falls asleep all the time,” Luffy told her sagely, “Just like gramps. Sometimes Ace will even fall asleep when he’s eating, and then he face plants right into his food! It’s really funny! He almost drowned in his soup once, Sabo had to save him.”

Ace switched his burning glare to Luffy, trying not to focus on the fact that his blush was probably brighter than a tomato at this point. His brothers were assholes, and apparently this human wasn’t a threat whatsoever, otherwise Sabo never would’ve told her about one of Ace’s weaknesses.

Plus Luffy seemed to adore her, if the way he was still cuddling her was any indication. Luffy may be dumber than a box of rocks sometimes, but he had extremely good instincts about people, the fact that he seemed to like this human so much meant she wasn’t a bad person.

The fact that she seemed to adore Luffy right back certainly helped ease some of the anxiety Ace had been feeling since learning his little brother had gone missing. That and seeing Luffy happy and healthy, if a bit small was enough to set him mostly at ease.

He still had a lot of questions for both of them though, but first he’d have to find some way to get out of this, surprisingly effective restraint method. He was a little surprised as the human apparently read his thoughts, gently setting Luffy on the ground and reaching for him, but then she paused, her face studying his intently.

“Look, I get it, you’re Luffy’s big brother, and you were probably really worried about him,” she told him firmly, “So I’ll forgive you this once, please don’t set my home on fire again though or I will find a way to shove you back in there.”

Ace grimaced, and though he couldn’t nod, did mentally agree, because it was looking more and more like he had over reacted, and if so he probably owed this woman an apology. She could apparently read it in his face, and nodded in satisfaction before reaching for him again.

He grimaced as he felt the water pouring off him, as she carefully set him on the mat outside the tub, then snagged a towel from off a nearby rack, easing the strange air filled tube off of him and carefully rubbing him down. As soon as he had enough strength in his limbs to move again he hastily backed away from her and heated his body so that it would dry out more quickly.

Sabo was sniggering still, and red faced Ace darted over and smacked him to make him shut up again before turning to the woman and bowing politely, “Hello, my name is Portgas D. Ace and I am Luffy’s brother, please forgive my intrusion into your home. I thought Luffy was in trouble.”

“Forgiven,” she agreed easily, “And my name is (name).It’s a pleasure to meet you Ace, Luffy’s told me a lot about you, you and Sabo.”

“Hey (name)?” Sabo prompted, “Now that I know everyone’s alright, can I please ask what’s going on here? I don’t understand what’s happening at all.”

“Of course,” she replied instantly, “Or I’ll explain what I can at least. I’m still not entirely sure myself to be honest.”

Sabo and Ace exchanged confused looks, but they were interrupted by the sound of a loud and extremely familiar growl. Both turned to Luffy who was holding his stomach and pouting unhappily.

“(Name!) I forgot! I’m hungry!” he informed the human woman unhappily.

“Well, it’s a good thing I was pretty much done with breakfast before your brothers showed up then, though I have a few things left to do still,” she retorted with a fond smile, “If you help me and promise to be good I’ll let you have an extra share of the bacon, how’s that?”

“Bacon!” Luffy agreed eagerly, “Bacon, bacon, bacon!”

“The two of you are welcome to join us if you’d like?” (name) offered with a smile, “I don’t think we’ll get any sort of real discussing done until we feed the black hole that is Luffy’s stomach.”

“We wouldn’t want to impose…” Sabo began, but then his stomach rumbled and to his embarrassment Ace’s echoed the sentiment.

Neither of them had eaten a whole lot since learning Luffy was missing, unable to focus on food while worrying about his absence and what it could mean. This meant they’d eaten enough to keep going and little more still, “Are you sure Miss (name)? We eat a lot.”

“I figured,” (name) told them with a wry smile, “His first day here Luffy ate everything but the vegetables in my kitchen. Frankly I would expect his brothers to be about the same. Luckily I made quite a bit more than usual this morning, and I can make even more extra of the stuff I haven’t gotten to yet, don’t worry.”

Sabo and Ace exchanged another look, but their gurgling stomachs were more than enough answer for her, and they allowed themselves to be led into the kitchen, wondering at this strange human woman who would volunteer to feed three demons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry this took so long, it's been a really busy couple of weeks. I wanted to take a second and thank everyone who left comments/Kudos/bookmarked/subscribed to this fic you guys are awesome! I also want to thank everyone who followed me over on Tumblr under the username EvenescentTranquility. I've had a couple of really great conversations with people over there and really appreciate the feedback they've given as well.


	7. Chapter 7

“So to sum it up, you thought being a summoner was some kind of joke, accidentally summoned Luffy, and have been trying to fulfill his side of the contract to get him home ever since?” Sabo asked carefully wiping his face with the napkin he’d been provided.

Breakfast had been excellent, he’d never had such a wide variety of foods before, and the bacon Luffy had tried to hog all to himself had been exquisite. The three of them had nearly had to tussle over it, until the human had produced more from her fridge and cooked up a pack each for them.

While they’d eaten she’d explained to him and Ace what exactly had brought Luffy to her in the first place, and what they’d been doing since. It sounded like they’d had all kinds of interesting adventures together so far, so why exactly wasn’t Luffy back yet.

Voicing the question aloud had her looking at Luffy for answers, apparently not sure of the answer herself. Unfortunately his brother was too busy shoveling food in his mouth, exclaiming about how lovely it all was to notice.

“You mean you don’t know?” Ace asked with a frown, obviously picking up on her hesitance.

“Well I’m kind of playing all this by ear. I mean I thought the whole thing was fake right? So I was just trying to fulfill the contract and figured Luffy would tell me when it was done and leave,” she offered frowning herself.

“I don’t think it works like that,” Sabo told her gently, “I think you have to do something to send him back.”

“Okay, but I shouldn’t have to now right? I mean technically if Luffy thinks the contract is fulfilled their shouldn’t be any negative repercussions and you can just take him home with you right?” she affirmed glancing between him and Ace.

Sabo exchanged sheepish glances with Ace, “About that actually, we were kind of hoping you were going to be able to send us home too…”

She gaped at them in shock and clear disbelief, “You’ve got to be kidding me! You don’t know how to get back?!”

“Hey! It’s not like we were thinking about it like that okay!” Ace snapped annoyed, “We didn’t know it was an accident we thought some summoner had kidnapped our baby brother and were trying to get him back!”

The slight flare of flames from him, that always accompanied his small bouts of temper, sent their host flinching back and away from him, naked fear on her face. Luffy immediately stopped eating as both Sabo and Ace stared at her in shock.

“Ace! Be nice to (name),” Luffy ordered him seriously, the smallest hint of anger coloring his tone, “You’ve got to be careful with her.”

Both brothers gaped at Luffy in surprise, Ace’s flames immediately extinguished at the sound of genuine displeasure from their baby brother before turning back to the human looking for some kind of explanation. After all Luffy wasn’t the type to be careful around anyone, his telling Ace to do so seemed more than a bit hypocritical.

“I don’t know what you know about humans,” she told them carefully, and Sabo noticed she’d moved herself so that she was as far from Ace as it was possible to be without being extremely rude, “But from what I’ve understood from Luffy we humans are extremely fragile compared to demons. He’s told me about your grandfather’s fist of love, I think it was?”

Both boys shuddered at the mention of the dreaded attack, trying to repress the memories that came along with that name.

“Something like that, Luffy said you recovered fairly quickly even if it hurt for a bit, but for a human like me, something like that would at the very least give me a concussion and that’s only if it didn’t send me into a coma or outright kill me,” she explained quietly.

“Frankly if you hadn’t fallen asleep earlier and Luffy didn’t wake-up when he did I’d probably be dead,” she told them a little shakily, as apparently her near miss earlier finally sunk in.

“You shouldn’t worry about it!” Luffy told her firmly, “Because you’re my friend and I never let my friends die.”

That seemed to jolt her out of her small fit of anxiety and she smiled fondly at Luffy, though there was a hint of melancholy in her gaze as well, “I know Luffy, thanks.”

She reached down and hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her in return, nuzzling his face against hers happily and returned to his breakfast. Sabo couldn’t bring himself to eat though despite the delicious smells wafting up from his plate. The guilt roiling in his stomach wouldn’t let him.

Glancing at Ace, he could see his brother was in a similar state, staring down into his lap where his hands were clenching and unclenching in his lap. They’d made a lot of assumptions about this summoner that they shouldn’t have, and if things had gone the way they’d planned they would’ve probably, albeit accidentally killed one of Luffy’s friends. Yes Luffy loved them both, but if they’d done something like that, Sabo wasn’t sure their happy-go-lucky baby brother would’ve ever been able to forgive them.

Hell he wasn’t sure he ever would’ve been able to forgive himself if he killed an innocent person, who’d obviously been doing her best to take good care of Luffy for them. He knew for sure Ace never would’ve, he didn’t need to see the sick self-loathing on his brother’s face to know that.

He was more than a bit surprised when Ace let out a small grunt, attracting his attention. Apparently the human girl had come up behind him and gently shoved his hat down over his face. Ace had hastily pushed his hat back up and had apparently been trying to glare at the woman only to fail at the sight of the gentle smile on her face.

“It’s okay you know? You were only trying to protect your family, there’s nothing wrong with that,” she assured him, “I already said I forgive you right? So don’t worry about it.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Ace told her petulantly turning his face away from her, not that it did anything to hide the reddening of his face, as he hurriedly began digging into the food again determinedly ignoring the human, who was grinning in amusement.

Sabo caught her eye and the two of them shared hesitant smiles, relieved that Ace was no longer caught up in his self-flagellation and promising himself that he would be extra careful with Luffy’s human friend from now on, he too returned to eating pondering their situation, trying to figure out how to get them back to the demon world. Because if they didn’t know, and she didn’t know, then they were stuck until they could figure something out.

“(Name) if you didn’t believe in magic or summoning, or demons, why did you have that book in the first place?” Sabo asked curiously.

“Oh that, it’s a bit of an odd story actually,” she told him with a frown, “You see I was coming home from school with my stuff, and it started raining and I didn’t have an umbrella, so I ducked into a little curio shop.”

“Curios? Those are those yummy looking circles right? The ones you eat with milk and a spoon?” Luffy butt in excitedly.

“No Luffy, those are Cheerios,” (name) told him clear amusement on her face.

“Oh! Then they must be those orange things that taste really yummy, with the cool cat with sunglasses on the wrapper!” Luffy exclaimed pounding his fist into his hand.

“Those are Cheetos Luffy,” (name) corrected gently.

“Oh whoops! Then they have to be those yummy looking cookies with white filling in the middle, that they were dunking on the TV!” he tried again insistently.

“Oreos Luffy, Oreos not curios, curios aren’t edible,” she told him fondly exasperated.

“Boring,” Luffy informed her before turning back to his food. Sabo tried not to sigh, not many things interested Luffy beyond food or adventuring, especially not with food right in front of him.

“Anyway so I went into the curio shop hoping to wait out the rain, or maybe buy an umbrella,” she explained, “But the man who ran the place…”

She shivered, despite the warm temperature in the house, and Sabo eyed her in concern, “He gave off this really creepy vibe, and he kept trying to sell me stuff even though I wasn’t interested. I don’t know I just… I’ve never felt so unsafe around someone before, he made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

“Anyway I demanded an umbrella, and he sold it to me at a ridiculous price, completely overcharging me then threw in the book for free, and I hightailed it out of there as fast as I could,” she explained with a shrug.

“What did the guy look like?” Ace asked curiously.

“Well, he wasn’t normal by any means that’s for sure. I mean, plenty of humans make strange and interesting fashion choices but still his were extremely odd. It’s part of why I remember him so well, well outside his creepiness that is,” she mused.

“He was actually pretty big for a human about…” she hesitated then climbed up on a chair, indicating a height of at least seven foot, “He might’ve been taller, but I think he was slouching, and he walked really funny, a bit bowlegged so it was hard to tell.”

“He had short blond hair, and he was always smiling this really creepy smile at me, though it was hard to tell what he was really feeling because he was wearing these sunglasses, which I thought was really odd considering how dark it was in the shop. I mean I was having trouble seeing as it was. I half remember wondering if he was blind or something, but he seemed to navigate just fine,” she continued with a thoughtful frown hopping down from the chair.

“The pants he wore were hot pink, zebra striped I think and he wore an open white button down shirt. He was pretty muscular I remember, and to top it all off he had this huge, and I mean _huge_ pink coat that looked like it was made of pink feathers, like flamingo feathers of all things,” she told them her incredulous tone giving away how absolutely baffling she found the man’s fashion choices.

Under normal circumstances Sabo might have been amused by her appalled expression but as it was he felt as if his blood had turned to ice. That description was unmistakable, so much so that even Luffy had put down his utensils and stopped eating, staring up at the human woman in concern.

Apparently the human was much better at reading the mood that Luffy or even Ace, because she immediately clicked on to the tense atmosphere, “I take it you know him then?”

“His name is Donquixote Doflamingo, and he’s one of the most dangerous demons in our world,” Sabo told her, figuring she deserved to know just how close she’d come to death, “He’s extremely powerful, has his own conclave of fighters, and is said to be a big player in the black markets of our world, including slave trafficking, drugs, and weapons, but no one can prove it, which makes him fairly untouchable, that and he’s backed by two of the most powerful Conclaves around the World Nobles and the World Government, though no one knows why that is.”

“I don’t understand,” she told them with a frown, “I mean if he’s this dangerous demon, what was he doing here in the human world playing shopkeeper of all things, and why did he just give me the book? I mean I’d never met him or seen him around before, and I’d never entered that shop either.”

“We don’t know,” Ace told her a worried frown on his lips, “But it certainly can’t be anything good. What I want to know though is why we didn’t feel his energy around when we came hunting for Luffy. I mean you said he was close by right?”

“Yeah only a couple of blocks away,” she answered though she looked extremely confused, “And what do you mean by energy?”

“Demons can, through training, develop a sense that allows them to among other things, locate other demons. We call it Observation Haki. If you’re good enough it can even allow you to track down individual demons, since each demon has their own unique energy signature, the more familiar you are with a demon the easier you can track them, which was how we were able to find Luffy, despite neither of us being the best at that particular kind of Haki,” Sabo informed her, not wanting to leave the poor human completely clueless as to what was going on, especially since it seemed like she’d been some kind of pawn, brought into the world of demon’s against her will by Doflamingo.

However he was more than a bit worried about what the man was thinking. He was a tricky one, clever and ruthless in addition to being strong, so just what the hell was he playing at giving a book about Demon Summonings to a human. He knew that not all humans could be summoners, so the fact that Doflamingo had managed to place the book in the hands of one who was…

He wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or not, but with Doflamingo involved he was certainly leaning towards not, which made him wonder exactly what he knew and how he knew it. He also had to wonder if he was still around, masking himself from their senses, or if he knew ways in and out of the human world.

The thought was enough to make him extremely uneasy and he could tell Ace felt the same way. He was pretty sure between the three of them, him and his brothers they could take on, or at least escape from Doflamingo, but with a human in the mix, one that had admitted to being very fragile, things could get dicey very quickly. Especially since Luffy would never allow them to leave the human behind if trouble came looking for them.

“(Name) I hate to ask, but could you show us where this shop was?” Sabo asked finally, “We need to figure out if Doflamingo is still around as soon as possible.”

“No way!” Luffy protested immediately, “(Name) isn’t near strong enough to get near the flamingo guy! He’s really dangerous! He almost killed Traffy!”

“I understand that you’re worried Luffy, but we really need to assess the situation and she’s the only one who knows where it is, we’re not familiar with the human world, so it’s for the best if she leads us there. If we catch even a hint of him being in the area, we’ll hightail it right out of there, but we’ve got to know Lu,” Sabo told his brother firmly.

Unfortunately Luffy wasn’t wavering, and as usual with the brothers things quickly devolved into a brawl, speaking with their fists sometimes worked far better than speaking with their words. Shockingly this time their fight was interrupted.

Sabo jerked and yelped in surprise, rolling off Ace and taking Luffy with him as the cold water hit his back. Sputtering he came up just in time to see all three of them had been doused with a bucket of ice water, and the human was standing there fuming.

“There will be absolutely no fighting in my kitchen,” she ground out furiously, “Just look at the mess you made!”

Glancing around sheepishly Sabo noted everything had been strewn on to the floor, the table was broken, and some of the cabinets were cracked. Broken dishes lay scattered on the floor along with random pieces of cutlery, no wonder she was pissed.

“You lot are going to clean up this mess, right now or so help me!” she threatened apparently completely forgetting about her fragile human state in the wake of her fury. Automatically Sabo climbed to his feet and bowed deeply.

“Apologies for the mess miss, we’ll clean it, where are the supplies?” he figured it was the least they could do. After all they’d barged into her house, almost killed her, eaten her food, and made a mess of her home.

“Luffy can show you,” she informed them flatly, “But that can wait until after we finish our discussion. Now, since you were talking about me, it should be up to _me_ to decide what I want to do correct?”

All three of them nodded sheepishly, guiltily shifting from foot to foot, and Sabo realized as he watched her from under the brim of his hat, that she reminded him of a terrifying mix of Koala, Dadan and Makino. With Dadan’s temper, Koala’s ability to lay down the law, and Makino’s talent for laying on the guilt and making them seem like unreasonable idiots.

“Then we’ll go,” she informed them, surprising Sabo enough for his head to come up in shock, “Because if he isn’t there, maybe we can take a look around the shop and find some way for you to get home. It makes sense that if anyone would have it, he would right?”

Sabo nodded, she had a point. One that he hadn’t even gotten around to thinking about yet though he probably should’ve.

“Good, but first you’re going to clean up, take showers, and get this mess fixed, meanwhile I’m going to go get ready, and once you’re finished we can go,” she informed them before marching off towards what he would assume was her bedroom, head held high.

“Your human is something else,” Ace informed Luffy quietly when she was out of sight.

“Shishishi, yeah (name) is awesome,” Luffy told them with a grin.

“She took good care of you then?” Sabo asked. He kind of felt he already knew the answer, but felt the need to ask anyway.

“Yeah! We did all sorts of fun things,” Luffy told them eagerly, then proceeded to recount the many adventures he’d had as he led them to the cleaning supplies and the three of them worked together to repair the damage as best they could to her kitchen, though the table was completely unsalvageable.

As he listened to his little brother ramble, he found himself liking the human woman more and more. Quite frankly, she’d done a fantastic job of keeping Luffy safe and out of trouble, which was something no single member of his Conclave would’ve been able to do, well except Nami, though even that was sometimes iffy.

He figured she was worthy of his respect and gratitude at the very least, and decided calling her human woman, even in the sanctity of his mind was rude, noting from now on to call her (name), she deserved that much at least.

…~oO*Oo~…

Ace wasn’t sure what he thought of the strange Summoner who’d accidentally taken Luffy. She seemed nice enough, Sabo seemed to like her, and Luffy obviously adored her, but she was very strange. Still he had to commend her for coming with them, leading them through the streets to Doflamingo’s store, while quietly coaching them on how to behave in public with humans around, and answering what questions she could.

Luffy was hovering anxiously by her side, nervous energy making him twitchy. It was kind of surprising to see his little brother so protective over someone. Oh sure he’d protect his Conclave, but normally he trusted them to be able to protect themselves first. It seemed that wasn’t so with the human, which had to be because she was fragile.

Honestly the idea of trusting Luffy with something fragile probably wasn’t the best, but he actually seemed to be doing a good job with his new friend. She probably couldn’t see it, because she hadn’t ever been around Luffy at his most bouncy and exuberant before, but he was actually showing a great deal of restraint as they made their way down the street, her hand clasped gently in his, ready to make a run for it with her at a moment’s notice.

Because despite what she said about making her own decisions, she was still taking a big risk, and even he didn’t want to see her hurt if a fight broke out between them and Doflamingo, not when they owed her for taking such good care of Luffy. Which was why they’d decided, while she was out of earshot that if there was so much of a whisper of Doflamingo’s presence Luffy would get her out of there while he and Sabo held Doflamingo off.

He knew his little brother wasn’t a big fan of the plan, but it was the only way to get (name) to safety if something happened, and both he and Sabo had a better chance at actually stalling the man. That he had agreed to it, showed how much he truly did care for the human woman.

His senses were on high alert as they casually made their way down the block, doing their best to avoid human attention, which was why both he and Sabo had been forced to change clothes. He hadn’t been very happy about it, but she’d insisted they’d both stick out like sore thumbs dressed as they were.

At least he had only had to but a cotton t-shirt on, a spare of Luffy’s that was a bit tighter than he would’ve liked. It couldn’t be helped though, obviously she didn’t have any men’s clothing just laying around, and Luffy’s build while muscular, was also much more slender than his own.

Sabo on the other hand, had been forced to leave not only his coat, but his gloves, hat, and goggles behind as well. His brother’s head honestly looked a bit naked without the hat, and he could tell it made him uncomfortable, but looking around he could see why she’d made him leave it. Not a single person on the street was wearing any sort of hat other than the occasional baseball cap, honestly he was just lucky he’d gotten to keep his, since she figured cowboy hats were okay even if his was bright orange.

“That’s it,” she told them, indicating the shop across the street from them, “But it looks kind of abandoned now.”

She was right, it did look empty. Sharing a glance with Sabo he casually walked across the street and peered into the dusty windows, straining his senses for any sign of Doflamingo only to come up blank. Either the man had gotten extremely good at hiding his signature or he was no longer there. Frankly he was of the opinion it was the latter, Doflamingo wasn’t the kind of person who liked to hide, period.

Gesturing ‘all clear’ to his brothers he casually tried the knob to the door, only to find it locked. He cursed quietly and waited for them to cross the street to him. He was just about to ask Sabo if he’d brought his lock picks when (name) reached curiously for the doorknob, only for it to turn easily under her hand, the door swinging open with a soft jingle.

He caught her around the waist as she tried to step inside and she frowned up at him confused, “That was locked. How did you open it?”

“What do you mean locked?” she asked clearly confused, “It turned easily!”

Ace reached out and closed the door, then jiggled the handle for her to see, it refused to turn under his hand. Sabo and Luffy both tried as well, but neither of them could get it to turn. Luffy was going to try smashing it, but was stopped by (name) they didn’t want to attract the attention of the other humans around after all.

“I don’t like this, that the door will only open for (name),” Sabo informed the group quietly.

“Well it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it,” the human pointed out practically, “And besides if Doflamingo is here and as dangerous as you keep insisting he definitely already noticed we’re here, no point hiding now.”

It was a good point, and this time when she carefully pushed open the door Ace didn’t stop her, though he did lead the way in, not allowing her to go first. The sight on the inside was unimpressive, everything appeared completely empty. The room was full of empty shelves and dust. Honestly it looked like no one had entered the place in ages.

Slowly he stepped further into the room, but nothing was jumping out at him. His brothers pushed in behind him, and (name) followed though not before blocking the door open. He raised an eyebrow at her in question.

“Hey, I’ve read enough scary stories to know to always make sure the door stays open lest you end up trapped inside,” she informed him and he realized it was probably a good idea, and so let it be. She stayed near the door as the three of them explored, but none of them seemed to find anything at all.

It was empty, completely abandoned. The longer it took for them to find anything the more safe the human seemed to feel as she slowly inched her way away from the door and further into the room, her eyes studying the layout of the store. She wandered around, careful to keep out of their way, though Ace was keeping half an eye on her just in case.

Apparently deciding the same way that they had, that there was nothing interesting, she went to lean on a wall, only to go careening backwards with a startled yelp. The three of them were over to her in a flash, luckily it didn’t seem like anything was actually wrong with her, except maybe a few bruises from falling through the wall.

Looking closer he could see that it was a trap door of sorts, which had apparently been designed to give way only if a certain amount of force was applied.

“This is way too scary movie cliché for me,” the human informed them with a huff, getting to her feet and brushing herself off.

Ace didn’t know what that was, but he was pretty sure it was an insult of some kind directed towards Doflamingo and so let it pass without question. Especially since the revealed room seemed to be just as empty as the first, except for a small stack of books in the center, with a letter on top.

All of them inched closer, and saw that the letter was addressed to “The Summoner” luckily it seemed she at least had enough sense not to touch it, not so much for their brother whose hands immediately darted out to grab it. 

He, Sabo and the human all cried out in alarm, but after a few seconds of nothing happening breathed a sigh of relief as their brother happily tore the letter open then frowned.

“It’s blank,” he informed them with a pout, showing them both sides of the letter, which were indeed completely empty.

“What are you talking about no it’s not,” (name) spoke up with a frown, watching the letter in his hands with interest.

“I don’t see anything,” Sabo informed her with a frown, “Do you Ace?”

Ace shook his head, and the human stared between the two of them, obviously trying to see if they were playing some sort of trick on her, obviously she decided they weren’t and she held her hand out to Luffy, who passed over the paper looking very confused.

_“Dear Summoner”_ she read aloud for them to hear.

_Congratulations, you’ve discovered Demons are real, and I in turn have discovered you. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem prudent for me to stick around at the moment, but have no fear I’ll return for you. In the mean time, it might be best for you to brush up on your skills. It’s going to come in handy for you down the line. Welcome to the Family, little human._

_Donquixote Doflamingo_

“Ugh I feel slimy,” she informed them tossing the letter back to Luffy who caught it, the expression on his face angry and serious.

“So it seems he figured out you were a summoner after all,” Sabo told her with a grimace, “This is not good.”

“I can see that,” she snapped, then winced, “Sorry, it’s just urgh, first Demons now this? What the hell does he mean by ‘Welcome to the Family.’”

“It means he wants you to be part of his Conclave,” Ace explained with a grimace.

“Flamingo can’t have (name),” Luffy informed them angrily, “She’s my friend and flamingo is mean.”

“I don’t want to be part of his Conclave anyway,” the human assured his brother, though he could see she looked a bit pale, “He gives me the heebie jeebies.”

“Can we get out of here please?” she asked anxiously.

Ace nodded, and they all left the empty store, worried. Luffy was worried for his friend, that much Ace could tell. He exchanged looks with Sabo, who’d paused to grab the books, neither of them wanted Doflamingo to get his hands on the human girl either.

One because he wouldn’t wish that kind of fate on anyone, let alone an innocent human girl, who’d done nothing wrong, two it would be very, very bad for the rest of the Conclaves if Doflamingo got his hands on her. The last Conclave to have a summoner had been his blood father’s and he had managed to practically rule their world, that kind of power in Doflamingo’s hands, untrained though it obviously was at the moment, was never going to be good. And finally and most importantly, the two of them owed her a debt, for taking such good care of Luffy for them.

He exchanged nods with his blond brother. They would keep the human safe from Doflamingo and out of his clutches no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to everyone who left Kudos/Comments or Subscribed!


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